The California Lottery announced Tuesday that a Mega Millions player only realized he bought a winning ticket in Los Angeles County when he got a text from his coworker, asking if he wasn’t at work due to winning the lottery.

Michael Chavez reportedly received a million-dollar prize in the Mega Millions lottery after a co-worker joked that he would win

“He kidded me if the reason I wasn’t at work was because I had won the million,” Chavez said in the release. “He even jokingly congratulated me.” Chavez finally remembered to check his ticket. Turns out, he was the player who matched five of the six winning numbers, winning him a $1,214,818 prize.

A California lottery player got a shock of a lifetime when he went to claim what he thought was a $1,000 prize from a winning scratchers ticket. Turns out he was mistaken, and he actually hit the top prize of $1 million.