Fred Cotreau, the owner of Hometown Gas & Grill in Lebanon, said he got a phone call at home at 6 a.m. Saturday from a man who said he was with the Augusta office of the Maine Lottery Commission.

“He said, ‘You better get down to your store, because it’s about to get crazy,’” Cotreau recalled.

It turned out the office had just put out a press release — before calling Cotreau — announcing that the single winning ticket for the Mega Millions $1.35 billion jackpot had been sold at Cotreau’s store.

The news turned the little corner store upside down over the following three days, with media descending on the town of under 6,400 people. 

On Tuesday, most of the media was gone, but the buzz over the ticket — and speculation over who the lucky new billionaire might be — remains.

“We’re excited,” Cotreau said. “You hope it’s somebody in town.”

The jackpot of just under $1.35 billion, drawn on Friday, Jan. 13, is the second largest in the Mega Millions’ history. 

Maine now joins a list of 25 other states nationwide reporting winners of $1 million or more in the Mega Millions game. The record largest jackpot, $1.537 billion, went to a single winner in South Carolina on Oct. 23, 2018.

Hometown Gas & Grill is a gas station, convenience store and eatery located about a mile from the New Hampshire border on Carl Broggi Highway, a state route and common connector in the area between both states. Charlene Walsh, who has been a clerk there for the past 13 years, said she can’t recall anyone winning any lottery game with a jackpot even coming close to Friday’s drawing.

“Oh, no,” she said, laughing. “Not in Maine, and not here. In our little town of Lebanon, Maine? Are you kidding me? We love it.”

Rodney Sanborn, 57, was eating at the café Tuesday morning. He said he and his father, Dale, 82, are regular Mega Millions ticket buyers, and when word got out Saturday that a customer in Lebanon had won, Sanborn said he called his father right away. Neither he nor Dale had won, it turned out, but Sanborn said his heart still skipped a beat when he first called.

“My father couldn’t find his ticket,” he said, laughing at the recollection. “For about 2-3 hours, we could have been billionaires.”

Sanborn, a Lebanon native, said he can’t recall there ever being so much excitement about a lottery winner. He said his biggest windfall was $500 he won off a scratch ticket he bought in the same location — then called Brennan’s Corner Store — when he was 18 years old.

Bryan Hatch, 64, sat next to Sanborn munching on chicken tenders. He said he lives in Milton, N.H., just over the border from Lebanon. The new Mega Millions jackpot may have reset to $20 million in the wake of Friday’s drawing, but the potential for a less eye-popping win didn’t deter Hatch.

“Yesterday, I saw all the media out front, I ran right in and bought a ticket,” he said, then dryly added with a smirk, “$20 million is better than nothing.”

'KEEP IT CONFIDENTIAL'

Sharon Huntley, a spokesperson for the Maine Lottery Commission, said as of Tuesday afternoon, the winner had not come forward, but whoever holds the winning ticket has one year to claim their winnings at the Maine Lottery Office in Augusta.

If the winner is aware that they've won, it's probably a good idea to keep quiet for now, according to Jay Flower, a portfolio manager at Portland-based H.M. Payson & Co., a financial services and investment advisory firm.

"You want to take effort, at least in the early days, that it be kept confidential," he said.

The first thing the winner should do, Flower said, is hire a law firm, not just an individual lawyer, and choose a firm that offers a variety of different services, as the winner will likely need more than one type of lawyer. 

Next, Flower said, the winner should speak with an investment advisory firm, one that has the resources to manage such a large amount of money. 

"From there, it's really just about identifying what your priorities will be," he said.

The winner could do anything from start a trust fund to donate to worthy causes. Whatever the winner does, Flower said, they should heed financial advice, and don't fall into the common trap of giving money away to family and friends, or spending too much money too fast. History is replete with examples of lottery winners who after just a few years wind up going broke.

"A lot of it is probably poor planning," he said. "They think they have more money than they can possibly spend."

In the meantime, Cotreau said, his store has gotten a lot of attention from the ticket sale, which has been good for business. He also said he will receive $50,000 from the state lottery commission for selling the winning ticket. He said he plans to disburse half of it to his staff, and donate another portion to a local community organization. 

“Maybe we’ll buy a new freezer or paint job for the store with the rest of the money,” he said.