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© St. Petersburg Times, published October 26, 2001
LARGO -- Ed Metallo didn't believe it.
The folks from the Florida Lottery called the convenience store owner early Thursday to tell him that his business sold the winning ticket in Wednesday's $10-million lottery jackpot.
"I thought it was some kind of joke," he said.
He quickly discovered otherwise. Lottery officials arrived at the business, Fairway Food Store, 1090 S Belcher Road, on Thursday morning with celebratory balloons, T-shirts and key chains. A sign was placed on the store's marquee declaring that it sold the winning ticket.
"I was pretty excited," said Anthony Augugliaro, Metallo's son-in-law and co-owner of the business.
The most anyone has won buying a lottery ticket from the store was $3,000, Metallo said. The store will get $10,000 from the Florida Lottery for selling the winning ticket.
But there's just one question. Who bought the ticket?
No one came forward Thursday to claim the prize. The winning numbers -- 1, 3, 5, 24, 33, 45 -- are not similar to any numbers played by the store's regular customers.
Metallo said that if he won that kind of money, he would probably use some to fix up the store.
Augugliaro wasn't sure.
"Oh, geez," he said. "I probably wouldn't believe it."