AMESBURY — Vermette's grocery store has sold its share of winning scratch tickets — just recently there was a $20,000 winner.
But what happened this week was beyond their imagination.
The store learned on Wednesday that a much bigger winner had been plucked from their stock of scratchers — a $10 million grand-prize winner in the limited edition Boston Red Sox 2008 tickets, which cost $20 each.
The winner was Robert Blair or Derry, N.H., according to Dan Rosenthal, a spokesman for Mass Lottery. Blair claimed his prize on Wednesday, receiving a check for $500,000. He will get 19 more over the next 20 years. All instant-ticket winners receive an annuity, with no option for a one-time payment.
The Red Sox tickets debuted at the end of March, and this is the first of two $10 million prizes, Rosenthal said.
Blair couldn't be reached for comment yesterday at his Derry home. He isn't a frequent or regular customer, store manager Gail Hanshaw said. "It's no one that I really know."
Rosenthal said, "He's a very nice man who doesn't want any publicity." Massachusetts releases the names of all big prize winners because they are public record.
The $10 million prize is just a small percentage of what the lottery is raising through its Red Sox themed instant tickets. The Red Sox 2007 ($10) and 2006 tickets ($5) were huge hits, generating a combined $385 million in sales.
The staff at Vermette's received the news confirming the sale of the $10 million Red Sox 2008 ticket by the Mass Lottery this week. The market will receive $50,000 from selling the winning ticket.
Hanshaw said the money will go towards outside renovations, slated to start this summer.
"It came at a perfect time," she said.
The store just expanded its lottery section to offer 40 scratch tickets, she added.
Customers are coming into the market asking about the winning sale.
"Good news travels fast," Hanshaw said. "Everybody in town seems to know about it."
