Workers at Cary software firm snag $1 million from huge Mega Millions jackpot

One single ticket had all of the numbers to lay claim to the $1.537 billion Mega Millions jackpot earlier this week but 14 Wake County co-workers managed to snag some of that huge jackpot for themselves.

According to the North Carolina lottery, 14 workers at a Cary software company formed an office pool to buy Mega Millions ticket.

Each employee donated $20 to their Mega Millions lottery pool, and they purchased 140 Quick Pick tickets at the Circle K on Harrison Avenue in Cary, according to lottery officials.

Roseanne Smith told NC Lottery officials that she decided to start an office pool after seeing how large the Mega Millions jackpot had grown.

“I asked everyone if they’d seen how high the jackpot was,” Smith said in a written statement. “I started walking up and down the rows asking who wanted to play.”

Mega Millions jackpot jumps to $1 billion

Although the employees who pooled their money to buy Mega Millions tickets didn't match every number, they did match enough to win $1 million, which the 14 workers will now split among themselves.

According to state lottery officials, the winners were: Erica Hayes of Cary; John Parker of Clayton; John Gulas of Cary; David Pitts of Raleigh; Ryan Mowatt of Raleigh; Patrick Bloomer of Wake Forest; David Peters of Fuquay Varina; Roseanne Smith of Fuquay Varina; David Mosley of Apex; Francis Bassett of Zebulon; Walter Overman of Raleigh; Richard Degenhardt of Cary; Derek Proffit of Raleigh and Ted Hart of Cary.

The Cary worker's ticket matched the five white balls, beating the odds of 1 in 12,607,306.

According to the lottery, their ticket was one of two sold in North Carolina to win $1 million prizes in the drawing. Two Multiplier tickets won $30,000, and nine tickets won $10,000 in the drawing.

The Cary group claimed their prize Friday at the lottery's headquarters in Raleigh. According to the agency, each worker received over $50,000 after required state and federal taxes were withheld.

How will they spend the money?

One woman is going to Disney World.

“I’m a single mother,” Hayes said. “My daughter is 11 (and) we’ve never been able to go on a trip together, so I’m going to take her to Disney World and Harry Potter World.”

“I’m going to get front row seats to Wrestle Mania,” Bloomer said. “It was either that or try to get Metallica to come play in my backyard. I figured Wrestle Mania was more likely.”

If your Mega Millions didn't pay off for you, well, there's still Powerball.