The winner of the Shop St. Joseph Holiday Program $10,000 grand prize threw away tickets at the beginning of the program.

“I’m not a big gambler,” said Gary Becerra. “I didn’t really think I’d win. I thought I was too busy to worry about collecting tickets.”

The 48-year old Ag Processing employee said he only had 16 tickets that he collected while doing his routine grocery shopping at Ray’s Green Hills. But his unlucky feeling changed on Dec. 21.

“For some reason, I had a feeling I had the winning ticket,” he said. “I made a point to be home to watch the 5 o’clock news to see the winning ticket number.”

His ticket number, 1085698, was drawn by Todd Meierhoffer, Chairman of the St. Joseph Board of Directors, on Dec. 21, which was the end of the ninth annual Shop St. Joseph program. The program is designed to keep holiday shopping dollars in St. Joseph. This year 96 merchants participated in the program and roughly 1.6 million tickets were distributed, which is more than the 700,000 tickets distributed in 2014.
Mr. Becerra is a lifelong resident of St. Joseph and has worked for Ag Processing for six years.

“I’m very into that the money I make here, I spend here,” he said.

When it comes to his plans for his winnings, he and his wife and 13-year-old daughter went out for a steak dinner Monday night to celebrate.

“Certainly, I’ll pay a percentage forward and it’ll definitely make Christmas a little brighter at our house,” he said.

Mr. Becerra’s daughter is a competitive cheerleader, so part of the winnings will go toward her upcoming competitions.

“Anything left over will be spent in St. Joseph, that’s for sure,” he said.

Ticket holders are encouraged to keep their tickets because a list of second chance prize numbers will be announced later today. Those numbers will be posted on saintjoseph.com.