POUND RIDGE, N.Y. At 10 oclock Friday morning, the lottery machine at the Pound Ridge Sunoco was oddly quiet. After all, Mega Millions mania was taking the country by storm and the service station was the only place in town where a lottery ticket could be purchased.
The machine was just down for about an hour, but its up and running again, said Karen Schaeffer, who, along with her husband, Tim, owns the business. We had to turn some people away and they weren't happy campers. But theyll be back.
The Schaeffers said the Mega Millions phenomenon wasn't something that had just taken hold the past 24 hours. They said its been keeping them busy all week.
We've been busy selling tickets for the past three or four days, Karen said. Nobody has been winning so the jackpot keeps going up and up. Were the only game in town and everybody wants to be in on it.
Tim said while the service station hasn't experience actual lines of people queuing up to buy Mega Millions tickets, he said theres been a steady stream.
Well probably have a lot of late-comers tonight, he said.
The Schaeffers said they think those in the Pound Ridge area should make a special trip to their Sunoco station to buy Mega Millions tickets because the business has a solid track record of selling winners.
In 2005, we sold a second-place winning ticket for the Mega Millions that won $250,000, Tim said. It was a local person who played the lottery regularly.
The station also has sold $5,000 winning scratch-off tickets in 2009 and 2011 and a $5,000 winner in the Win 4 game last year.
We do pretty well, Tim said as new customer came through the door with a dollar and a dream.
Click here to follow Daily Voice and receive free news updates.
