Jackpot winner denied to his mum he won lottery
TrENToN ( New Jersey): The winner of a US$533mil (RM2bil) jackpot was not sure he could believe his eyes. So, when his mother called to say someone in his new home state had won it, his response was: It wasn’t me.
Richard Wahl, of Vernon, New Jersey, was introduced on Friday during a news conference at the lottery headquarters after winning the half-billion March Mega Millions drawing, the largest single jackpot in state history.
Wahl, 47, a production manager at a food services company in the northern part of the state, plans to retire and take the cash payout over the annuity, totalling US$220.7mil (RM860mil) after taxes.
He described finding out he had the winning ticket late at night: “It was truly amazing. Some of my family members were sleeping so I didn’t go and scream out. I saw my wife ... and said, ‘Baby, we get to go on vacation’. She said, ‘What are you talking about? Don’t be an idiot’.”
He said he checked the numbers 15 times, kept the ticket in a fireproof safe and wanted to be sure the win was for real before he told other family members.
“Actually, the weird thing is my mum actually called me before I wanted to tell her and told me ‘I heard somebody in New Jersey won the lottery, was it you?’,” Wahl said.
“And I wasn’t ready to share with her yet, so I told her, ‘Absolutely not, mother’.”
He bought the winning ticket at a Lukoil gas station in northern New Jersey and said the numbers were machine picked.
“That’s why we believe it’s God’s plan,” he said.
He said he went back to the Lukoil station to fuel up after he won but before he came forward.
It happened to be the same day the state lottery was presenting a US$30,000 (RM117,000) cheque to the station for having sold the winning ticket.
He said he saw all the cameras and decided to walk out, worried that he might be recognised since he was not ready to come forward yet. — AP