Winner of $4 million ticket sold in Fontana says he'll help people with money

FONTANA, Calif. (KABC) -- The winner of a $4 million Powerball ticket sold in Fontana has come forward, saying he just had a lucky feeling when he made that purchase back in January.

The ticket sold at an ARCO ampm before the Jan. 30 draw carried five of the six winning numbers for a prize of $3,987,249. One more matching number and it would have claimed the multistate jackpot's staggering amount of $613 million.

Still Misael Cruz says he doesn't mind falling one number short, given that the consolation prize was pretty hefty itself.

"I know exactly why I won," Cruz told lottery officials. "I help a lot of people, and I never expect anything in return. It's what I teach my children. I know I was rewarded for helping."

Cruz says he buys lottery tickets on a regular basis but just felt lucky that day.

"I kind of had a (lucky) feeling that day I bought my tickets," he said. "The clerk wished me good luck. When I was walking out the door, I said to myself, 'what if I win?!'"

As for his plans for the money, he says he'll still be frugal when making purchases.

"I'm going to keep helping people. I will invest some, but this money is not going to change me as a person. I will still shop for the cheapest prices," he said.

Cruz is also lucky he bought the ticket in California. In most other states, a ticket with 5 of 6 numbers is worth a fixed amount of $1 million or $2 million, but California law requires major payoffs of lottery games to be paid on a pari-mutuel basis, or proportional to the number of tickets sold.

The odds of matching all five numbers and the Powerball number is 1 in about 293 million, according to the Multi-State Lottery Association, which conducts the game. The overall chance of winning a prize is 1 in 24.87.

Wednesday night's Powerball jackpot stands at $170 million.