Brookline Store Owner Gives $1 Million Lottery Ticket As Gift

A gift that only cost $20 ended up being worth $1 million. Nobody was more surprised than the man who gave it. He's a pharmacy owner who gave a lucky gift to someone he loves.

It all began days before Christmas, when the owner of the Medicine Shoppe in Brookline, Fred Depasquale, bought 30 tickets in his store, for the lottery's millionaire raffle.

At $20 each, Depasquale gave most of those tickets to family and friends as Christmas gifts.

Depasquale kept five of the tickets for himself and admitted that he and his family members forgot about them and never bothered to check their numbers the night of the lottery.

When the Lottery Commission came knocking on his door Monday to say he sold one of the winning tickets, Depasquale's wife told the relatives to check their numbers.

His wife's cousin had been given the winning raffle ticket. Depasquale said the winner wanted to remain anonymous, but that she is pregnant with her second child.

“It's kind of neat to sell something and even neater that a family member won it," said Depasquale.

Depasquale said selling the winning ticket has been good for his business.

Depasquale is getting a $5,000 commission from the lottery and plans to celebrate the win by taking his staff out to dinner.