‘Backpack miracle’ guy on the mend
“I’M SCARED but I’ll be OK.”
Or maybe a little bit more than OK — $758.7 million more than OK.
Mavis Wanczyk, a medical worker from Massachusetts, whose ex-husband was killed by a hit-and-run driver last year, was revealed as the winner of the largest single Powerball prize in the country’s history during a Thursday press conference.
Wanczyk, 53, bought the winning $2 ticket at a Pride gas station store in Chicopee, Mass., around 2:30 p.m. Wednesday as fever over the prize was growing.
A lump-sum cash value, before taxes, would be $443 million, lottery officials said.
The happy turn comes after tragedy struck Wanczyk’s family in November — her ex-husband, William Wanczyk, a former firefighter, was killed in a hit-and-run crash in November, according to Mass Live.
Peter Sheremeta, a 20-year-old who prosecutors say was drunk when he drove into a bus shelter, was arrested in June on charges including manslaughter and motor vehicle homicide.
Wanczyk said she was walking out of work at a medical center late Wednesday when a firefighter friend named Rob told her the winning numbers — and shared in her life-changing discovery.
He predicted the winner was a ticket buyer who chose birthday numbers.
“Oh, yeah, I know, it’s never going to be me,” she responded. “It’s just a pipe dream I had.”
She couldn’t believe her ticket matched all six numbers.
“I couldn’t drive anywhere and I couldn't do anything,” she told reporters as she stood smiling in front of a giant check.
He firefighter friend followed her home to make sure she arrived safely.
On Wednesday, the mother of two bought two Quick Picks and used “basically random” numbers for the third ticket.
The winning numbers included birthdays and the number 4, based on the size of a group of relatives and friends who dine together on Friday nights.
“I just happened to choose and it worked to my advantage,” she said. “It really did.”
The winning numbers from Wednesday night’s drawing were 6, 7, 16, 23 and 26, and Powerball 4.
Wanczyk, who works at Mercy Medical Center in Springfield, Mass., called her boss to say she would no longer be showing up. The win is still sinking in. “Today, as I’m driving here, I was, like this isn’t true. This can’t be,” she said.
Now, she just wants to relax at home.
“I’m going to hide in my bed,” she said, noting the money will enable her to pay off a car she purchased last September.
Adding to the drama before the winner’s reveal, lottery officials initially said the ticket was sold about 80 miles away, at the Handy Variety store in Watertown, Mass.
In fact, a $1 million jackpot was sold at that location.
There were 40 other people who won $1 million or more by matching five numbers, minus the Powerball, according to lottery officials. Two $1 million tickets were sold in Manhattan — at Hudson News, 628 Eighth Ave., and Chunnu News, 700 Third Ave. The only other $1 million ticket in New York was sold outside Buffalo. THE BRONX MAN who cheated death when a stray bullet pierced his backpack instead of his skull is on the mend, relatives said.
Fernelin Encarnacion, 22, entered his third day of recovery at St. Barnabas Hospital from the graze wound he suffered Tuesday night on Davidson Ave.
“He’s doing better,” his sister Carolina Encarnacion said. “He’s talking more.”
The wounded man was walking home from the 4 train at Fordham Road when he felt the pit-a-pat of raindrops.
He pulled his black and red Jordan backpack over his head, and then calamity struck.
“I was using the bag as an umbrella,” he told the Daily News from his hospital bed Wednesday. “When I reached Davidson Ave., I turned right. I did four steps, and I heard, ‘Pop!’ and (the bullet) was on my head and I fell.”
The slug hit him in the forehead, breaking the skin without entering his skull.