Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious! A $7M lotto ticket was sold Christmas Eve 2015 at Nordahl Liquor

Who was it, you, to whom Santa brought a very supercalifragilisticexpialidocious holiday bounty down the chimney on Christmas Eve, 2015?

Or was it a discarded scrap sitting amiably in an unattended drawer somewhere along the Highway 78 corridor around the Great Grapevine?

Only the Shadow, possibly Santa, Mary Poppins and state lottery officials knew. And they were not telling.

It was all over but the shouting at Nordahl Liquor, 740 Nordahl Road as one of its own customers sat at home holding a winning $7 million SuperLotto Plus ticket, according to Greg Parashak, a California Lottery spokesman. The owner had not initiated the big reveal, and, in fact, may remain anonymous if so wished. Or may never show a face.

Noel Yako bought several Powerball tickets, and alka-seltzer, at Nordahl Liquor a few days after the $7 million SuperLotto Plus ticket was sold./dweisman

The San Marcos liquor store sold the ticket on Christmas Eve that matched the Wednesday, Dec. 30, 2015 drawing according to state lottery officials on Jan. 1, 2016. Store manager Steve Kaspolis said to news sources that this was his first time — Ya’ think? — selling such a huge winning ticket, adding, “I’m excited and happy.”

Kaspolis ought to be excited and happy. The store gets $35,000 for selling the ticket. Not only that, the store reportedly had long lines of people on New Year’s Eve, after word got out about the $7 million winner, buying tickets for Saturday’s big lottery.

Or maybe the ticket sits somewhere unappreciated through all these merry Christmas Eves past If you bought a ticket at the store, you should have checked by now for the winning numbers: 3,4,6,25,26; mega number 32.

Come out, come out whoever you are. Or was the lucky ticket and hefty reward lost forever to the wide, wide world of losers.

The old saying that good things come to those who wait proved true when Bertilia Devine, a retired accountant, came forward in April 2006 to claim her $7 million SuperLotto Plus prize.

With ballyhoo galore, the winning ticket for the Dec. 30 drawing was regaled at Nordahl Liquor, the store that sold it. However, there the story seemed to end as no one came forward.

Mystery surrounded the owner of the golden ticket. The mystery was solved but partially when state lottery officials announced the winner Devine. She had six months to claim the prize, but good for her, did it in four. Otherwise, all the loot would have been lost to an actually good cause, the state school general fund, and, heaven forbid, helped kids learn more.

Devine refused to make herself available for questions. That was her right under law, but her disclosure also elicited a related remark. “I won $50,000 on Fantasy 5 many years ago,” lottery officials quoted her as saying.

Where does she live? What does she do? The mystery continues. Fairly rare in today’s age of social media and too much information, Devine appeared to have zero online presence. Searches for information about her yielded only the results that she came forward to claim her prize.

At least someone won even if it weren’t any of us./dweisman

Coincidence, luck, or something more, any way the bouncing lotto balls drop, good fortune came Devine’s way. Ever the accountant, albeit retired, Devine said she waited to collect her pot of gold so she could get her financial affairs in order, according to lottery officials, who added that she said she hadn’t decided exactly what her plans were for the money.

While not quite in the million dollar club, Nordahl Liquor, one of 22,000 statewide lottery retailers, got a little taste for its winning ticket participation. The store receives a $35,000 bonus for the sale. The retailer bonus comes from a separate fund and isn’t subtracted from Devine’s prize, lottery officials said.

“I’m excited and happy,” Nordahl Liquor manager Steve Kaspolis said. But the Devine one? Nobody’s business, apparently.