North Hollywood Man Wins $12.4 Million

After a day spent making sure that the claim was legitimate, California Lottery officials confirmed Tuesday that a North Hollywood man had won the $12.4-million jackpot in Saturday’s Lotto game.

The winner, William A. Barrera, refused requests for interviews.

Barrera had presented his winning ticket to the Van Nuys lottery office Monday. But the location where he bought it, a 7-Eleven store at 6625 Lankershim Blvd., North Hollywood, had thrown away a computer sign-on slip needed to prove that the ticket was produced by that Lotto machine.

Lottery spokeswoman Joanne McNabb said stores frequently misplace or disregard the sign-on slips. Without that proof, she said samples of the store’s remaining Lotto paper had to be sent to Sacramento for the win to be validated.

Barrera’s winning numbers, which were chosen by the machine on a Quick Pick ticket, were 20, 33, 23, 9, 26 and 39.