‘Perfect gift’: Man scratches off $1M winner on 18th birthday in California

SACRAMENTO, Calif. — Welcome to adulthood.

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A California man who turned 18 received a scratch-off lottery ticket from his grandmother as a birthday gift. The scratch-off contained a $1 million winner for Kaleb Heng, the California Lottery said in a news release on Thursday.

“I’m pretty stoked! I certainly wasn’t expecting it,” Heng said in a statement.

Fittingly, the name of the scratch-off ticket was “The Perfect Gift.”

Heng’s grandmother bought the winning ticket at an Oasis Market in Turlock and gave it to the birthday boy as he was heading out on a fishing trip.

“My mom was driving me to go fishing, and on the way, I scratched it,” Heng said in a statement. “We had to pull over. It was a million dollars, and I didn’t even have an ID yet!”

Heng told lottery officials that the fishing trip was canceled and that he needed to get proper identification. Once he got the ID, Heng was able to cash in his winning ticket, lottery officials said.

California’s youngest millionaire told lottery officials that he is going to use the money for his college education and will invest the rest for his future.

He is off to a good start already.