Gas station owner gets $1 million for selling jackpot Powerball ticket, wants to share it with family

The gas station owner who sold the $2 billion-winning Powerball ticket received a $1 million payday of his own, which he plans to split among his family, including 11 grandkids.

Joseph Chahayed, 75, who runs Joe’s Service Center in Altadena, Calif., was handed the giant check outside the station on Tuesday morning, according to the Los Angeles Times.

“They said, ‘congratulations, your station sent a winner,’” he told CNN of the lottery officials who met him outside the store before he opened for the day.

That winner will take home about $628 million after taxes, according to Forbes.

California Lotto spokeswoman Carolyn Becker said during a news conference that the ticket sales raised more than $156.3 million for public schools. Tickets worth a $1 million prize were sold in 16 states, according to lotto officials.

While the winner of the $2.04 billion prize has yet to come forward, Chahayed, who came to the U.S. from Syria in 1980, plans to stick around operating the store.

“I wish I knew the person but most people who buy tickets from me are from the neighborhood. I hope one of them will be the winner,” he told the Associated Press. He added that he’d sold winning tickets before, but those were worth four figures.

Chahayed is also the father-in-law of ex-NFL player Domata Peko, who played 10 seasons for the Cincinnati Bengals.

“My Father In-Law Sold the winning PowerBall 2 billion $ Congratulations Baba,” Peko captioned an Instagram Story.

The odds winning the Powerball jackpot, which is played in 45 states as well as D.C., Puerto Rico and the Virgin Islands, are 1 in 292.2 million.