SANTA ANA : Lotto Winner’s Luck Rubs Off On Couple

This Christmas, somewhere in Orange County--presumably Santa Ana--someone won’t have to pout, and won’t have to cry, but he or she will probably shout. Want to know why?

Santa Claus is coming to town--with $10.1 million in his sack.

Earlier this week, one lucky person walked into a Santa Ana liquor store and selected the numbers 30, 49, 3, 24, 47 and 46 for Wednesday night’s Lotto drawing. Whoever it was didn’t know it at the time, but that person walked out with more than $10 million to spend on Christmas gifts. Or anything else, for that matter.

It was not immediately known who hit the jackpot.

The winner, the first ever to pick six of six numbers at a Santa Ana Lotto outlet, did not come forward to claim the mega-prize Thursday, said state lottery spokesman John Schade.

Another winner of sorts will also have a very merry Christmas.

June Park, co-owner with her husband of the Santa Liquor Mart and Deli at 652 S. Harbor Blvd., was $50,500 wealthier Thursday just for selling the winning ticket to the state’s newest millionaire.

In her neat, well-stocked shop, Park was so giddy that in trying to introduce her husband, she said, “Um, um, James Park--I’m so excited, I forgot my husband’s name!”

For the Parks, both 32, the jackpot was the culmination of the American dream.

They both arrived in the United States about 15 years ago, June from Seoul, South Korea, and James, who is also of Korean descent, from Sao Paulo, Brazil. They scrimped and saved and scraped together enough money to open their business 2 1/2 years ago, and they bought a home in Hacienda Heights.

“I just sold my home last Sunday night,” June Park said. “We were deciding on where to buy a new house. That’s why the timing was so great.”

Park said she and her husband will use the windfall to place a down payment on a new, bigger home, for themselves and their two children, Natalie, 10, and Alexander, 4.

She also said she will share some of the Lotto loot with her employees.

In addition to those practical and charitable plans, Park, like all people with “found money,” may not be able to resist a splurge.

“Maybe I’ll throw a party,” she said.