SIMPSONVILLE, S.C. — C.J. Patel stood outside KC Mart No. 7 in Simpsonville and told a crowd of locals and media that the store “is always lucky to me.”

He owns the store in a suburban section of Simpsonville that borders on rural. But for a Mega Millions ticket holder, it’s also a lucky store for them. Patel’s store sold the winning ticket in Tuesday night’s $1.5 billion Mega Millions jackpot.

The store sold the lucky ticket with the numbers 5, 28, 62, 65,70 and the mega number 5.

State lottery officials announced Wednesday that the winning ticket was sold at KC Mart #7 at 303 Lee Vaughn Road in Simpsonville. The winner has 180 days to collect the jackpot.

The person or persons with the lucky numbers has yet to come forward and has the option to remain anonymous, said Tony Cooper, chief operating officer of the S.C. Education Lottery.

But Cooper described reaction to the winning ticket being sold in South Carolina with a word not found in the dictionary.

Meanwile, a climbing Powerball lottery was set to be drawn Wednesday night. The jackpot for Powerball had climbed to $620 million by Wednesday afternoon.

Lottery officials are anticipating higher sales of Powerball tickets following the record drawing on Tuesday.

The store became a gathering spot for local and national media as well as customers hoping to cash in on the store’s success. About two dozen media outlets sent crews to cover Wednesday’s news conference, and a crew from NBC News arrived about 1.5 hours after the news conference started.

Customers, shocked and giddy about the community’s sudden notoriety, lined up to buy tickets for the next Mega Millions and for the growing Powerball pot.

For Patel, there’s no doubt the ticket sell is a victory. His store receives $50,000 for selling the winning ticket. He said he’ll spread the money to his employees and do some upgrades to the store. He hopes the new billionaire will come back even if the winner’s identify is hidden. And he hopes the ticket buyer is from around Simpsonville.

“Hopefully it’s a local guy to spend it in the community,” Patel said.