Mission Viejo Lotto Winner ‘Waiting to See Check’

California’s newest millionaire is a grandmother whose weekly Lotto habit paid off.

Carmella Sacco, 67, of Mission Viejo snagged more than $9.8 million in Saturday’s drawing from random numbers picked during her weekly trip to the Alpha Beta supermarket at Trabuco Road and Alicia Parkway.

Sacco, a tax examiner for the Laguna Niguel office of the Internal Revenue Service, spotted the winning numbers in Sunday’s Times Orange County Edition.

“I checked and (the numbers) were exactly the same, but I kept looking at them,” she said Monday. “I just kept staring at them, and I couldn’t believe that I had gotten six straight. I think God was there and helped me to win it.”

Though lottery officials have verified Sacco as the winner, she remains rather skeptical.

“You know, I have always had the feeling that I’ll believe it when I see the check,” she said. “I know that I’m the winner, but I think I’m waiting to see the check.”

Within about a month, Sacco will receive the first installment of her prize--$395,200 after taxes--and will continue to receive that amount each year for the next 20 years. So far, she said, she has no plans to change her modest lifestyle or move from her single-family home.

Sacco said she has felt “numb” since learning of her fortune. She said she kept no wish list of things she would like to buy if she won and will probably live the “regular life I’ve had all along.”

Sacco moved to Orange County 18 years ago from New York state and spent most of her life as a homemaker raising two children. She joined the IRS five years ago and said she has not decided whether to keep her $18,000-a-year job.