Fresno man wins $3.75 million in California Lottery drawing

A Fresno man thought the email he received from the California Lottery about a month ago was probably nothing more than spam; he deleted it from his inbox without even opening it.

But Xue Lee couldn’t have been more wrong – and his mistake nearly cost him $3.75 million. Lee kept thinking about the unread email, but couldn’t find it in his server’s trash folder. He eventually logged onto the California Lottery website to discover that a losing $10 California Lucky Life scratch-off ticket he’d sent in for the state’s 2nd Chance drawing was, in fact, a big winner.

Lee’s ticket was pulled in the end-of-game drawing for a grand prize of $5,000 a week for 25 years, which would add up to $6.5 million. Instead, Lee chose a one-time lump-sum payout of $3.75 million.

Lottery officials said Lee plans to use some of his winnings to buy a house and take a Hawaiian vacation with his girlfriend, and invest the rest .

This story was originally published October 1, 2015 at 3:43 PM with the headline "Fresno man wins $3.75 million in California Lottery drawing."