Patrols just the ticket for winner

POLICE ARE providing extra patrols around the western Massachusetts home of Mavis Wanczyk, who won the $758.7 million Powerball prize Wednesday night.

The hospital worker from the town of Chicopee won the biggest undivided lottery jackpot in U.S. history. Lottery officials say she chose to take a lump-sum payment of $480 million, or $336 million after taxes.

“We want her to know we’re there if she needs us,” Officer Michael Wilk, a spokesman for Chicopee police, said Friday.

Wilk said officers are keeping an extra eye out, and have even parked in her driveway, as members of the media and others have descended on the neighborhood. Officers have spoken to neighbors to tell them that if they see anything suspicious, they should call the police, he said.

“We’re not going to tolerate her being harassed or bothered,” he said.

Wilk said police were told by a neighbor that she is not around.

Wanczyk quit her job on Thursday after learning she had won the prize.