Metro

Man wins $20M jackpot during weekly date night

It was the best date night ever!

A Long Island man picked up a Mega Millions ticket while taking his wife on their weekly outing — and it turned out to be a $20 million jackpot winner.

Cameron Finney, 48, stopped for gas on the way to Popeye’s, when he stopped to fill up his tank and saw he had an extra $4.

But the gas station’s lotto machine wasn’t working, so he drove down the street to Gascon Inc. in Coram, put his cash on the counter and got a ticket with the numbers 19, 26, 51, 57, 73 and Mega Ball 15.

Little did he know that couple bucks turned into a $20-million Mega Millions jackpot for Finney, the mystery man behind the winning New York ticket drawn March 25. He revealed his identity Thursday and announced he’d opted for the lump-sum payout to the tune of $7.4 million after withholdings.

Aside from his weekly date nights with his wife, Finney regularly picks up coffee and a buttered roll for breakfast from Jackspot!, a convenience store in Shirley. He gave his ticket to the clerk to see if he had won anything.

Finney’s winning ticket.Victoralcorn.com

The machine spit back an answer that changed Finney’s life: Big Jackpot Winner. At first, he was in disbelief, telling the clerk the machine was broken.

“I kept saying, ‘Oh my god. I won a million!’” Finney said at a press conference. “I called my wife and she said, ‘quit playing.’ When I hung up the phone, the clerk said, ‘Oh my God, you won $20 million!’”

Finney immediately called his wife back.

“She didn’t believe me so I had a customer explain to Donna that we were winners,” he said.

Donna, 49, said he has pulled pranks on her before.

“When my husband put a stranger on the phone, I said, ‘For all I know, my husband paid you,’” she said. “I tell him I’ll never believe him until I see it in my hands.”

Finney with his whopping $20,000,000 check.Victoralcorn.com

Finney slept with the ticket in his pocket for two nights before stashing it in his safety deposit box.

“I’m not going to change,” he said. “I’ve seen many lottery shows and how people wasted their money. That’s not me. I won’t waste it. It will be here until I’m gone.”

Donna’s going to keep her job at Cablevision for now. Finney plans to retire next week and will buy himself a Dodge Ram.

“Last year at this time, we were in a car accident and I wrecked a Dodge Ram taking my wife to dinner, “he said. “I always wanted a Bentley, so I’ll get one after getting my wife a house.”

He’s still unsure what he’ll get after the Bentley, but he knows he’ll be buying more lottery tickets.

“I will be back again to play because I know I’m going to win. I’m going to hit the $100 Mega Millions.”