$13.58-Million Lotto Winner Lives a Dream--and Leaves Job

James Davis of Paramount lived out a working person’s dream Thursday morning. At 7 a.m., he walked into work at Engs Motor Truck Co. in Pico Rivera and quit.

An hour earlier, the 52-year-old truck parts salesman learned he had won all of Wednesday’s $13.58 million Lotto jackpot.

Publicity-shy Davis and his wife, Dorothy, were avoiding reporters and photographers Thursday after showing up later that morning to claim their prize at the Whittier office of the California Lottery.

Bruce Lee, owner of the Starlite Liquor Store on East Alondra Boulevard in Paramount, where the couple bought their winning Lotto ticket, said he found the Davises outside the store at 6 a.m. Thursday when he arrived to open up.

They had their ticket with them and wanted to know how much they had won, Lee said. He checked the number on the Lotto machine and it showed they had the only winning ticket.

After taxes, that gives them $543,200 a year for the next 20 years.

“When they saw there was only one winning ticket, then they got excited,” Lee said. The Davises played Lotto twice a week, buying $5 to $10 worth of tickets each time, depending on the size of the jackpot, Lee said.

Lottery officials said the Davises did not want to be interviewed, but that they live in a one-bedroom apartment and have been married for 12 years. They have no children, according to Lottery officials, and Dorothy Davis does not work.

At the truck company, other employees were delighted to learn that a co-worker had become a millionaire, controller Virginia Vierra said. Only one person was there when Davis walked in early and handed over his keys to the man who works the truck parts counter with him, Vierra said.

“We hear he was all smiles and everything,” she said.