At Port Jefferson’s Village Grocery, a $1 million Powerball ticket has locals buzzing

By Tuesday morning, word had spread through Port Jefferson’s Village Grocery: someone who stopped into the shop for a Powerball ticket over the holiday weekend is now $1 million richer.

The news didn’t come from lottery officials, but from a customer with a phone in hand.

“She said, ‘Look, that’s you,’” recalled co-owner Qaiser Mirza, who has run the Main Street grocery with his brother for nearly three decades. “I said, ‘Oh, that’s Village Grocery. Good for her — or him!’”

The New York Lottery earlier had confirmed to Greater Long Island that the store sold the state’s only second-prize winning ticket from Monday night’s Powerball drawing and that it was worth a cool $1 million.

For Mirza, this was a first. His shop has seen $40,000 and $60,000 winners in years past, but never anything close to this.

“It would be nice if it’s somebody from around here,” he said, adding that the grocery has plenty of regulars who show up almost daily for tickets.

Among them is Nancy Sheils, who has lived in Port Jefferson for nearly 60 years. On Tuesday, she fed her losing lottery tickets into the shop’s “Check Your Ticket” machine and shrugged.

“I wish it was me,” she said with a laugh. “I don’t even need a million. I do Pick 10 for $500,000. I’m not rich, but I don’t need a billion either.”

Still in it to win it

Sheils, who works in real estate and whose husband works security at St. Charles Hospital, keeps her family house in the village and looks after her father. Buying tickets, she said, is her small indulgence.

“It’s really not a habit, but it’s just like my own little thing, you know? It’s exciting,” she said.

_{Photos: Brian Harmon}