Mineola resident Rodger O’Gara only plays the Mega Millions lottery game when the jackpot gets big.
That’s what the retired New York Police Department sergeant said after he hit it big last week – winning $250,000 as one of 11 second place prize winners in the near-record Jan. 4 Mega Millions jackpot drawing.
“This is a big enough jackpot for me,” O’Gara said.
O’Gara, 45, bought his Quick Pick on impulse at Mineola Card & Smoke on Jericho Turnpike in Mineola – and it proved to be his best impulse buy of the new year.
“I was just getting a slice of pizza and ran into a friend. I saw he had lottery tickets in his hand so I headed next door to buy a few for myself,” O’Gara said.
He later checked his numbers on the results board at a gas station and said he “couldn’t believe it.”
He went and had the retailer at the store where he bought the ticket scan it just to make sure.
“The clerk told me I should get that ticket home safe because I had a big winner,” O’Gara said.
A married father of two, O’Gara said he plans to use the lottery windfall to pay and, “Pay for college for the kids.”
