California Lottery: Calif. family wins $84 million SuperLotto jackpot
Call it women's intuition.
Robyn Butler, a 19-year-old Palmdale woman, had the magic touch last week when she randomly selected six numbers that won her family an $84 million lotto jackpot.
Butler just happened to be with her father, Vincent Butler, last Friday when he bought what turned out to be the winning ticket at a 7-Eleven in Palmdale. The digits she chose matched all five SuperLotto Plus numbers and the Meganumber drawn Saturday night - 2, 41, 17, 33, 43 and Meganumber 5.
"I just went with my intuition," she said Monday, surrounded by her parents and brothers Brian, 18, and Vincent Jr., 16, at the California Lottery District Office in Van Nuys, where they were presented with the hefty check. The Butlers said they chose to cash out half of the jackpot rather than taking the full $84 million over the next 26 years.
While Robyn plans to continue working at a Target store, her mom, Nancy, has already contacted the Vons supermarket where she works in the deli department to say she was quitting.
Nancy held back tears as she described how she learned the family held the winning numbers. When her husband showed her the ticket, she said she thought it was a fake.
"My sister Dorothy in Ontario called me on Sunday and told me a Palmdale family had won," she said. "My sister said, 'I hope it's you. You guys deserve it."'
The Butlers were still in disbelief Monday, but vowed to stay grounded, saying the money would help them worry less about finances.
They want to finish paying for their home in Palmdale, start education funds for their younger children, buy a new Dodge for Nancy, and maybe take that trip to Hawaii they have always wanted.
While Nancy is looking forward to some time off, her husband, who does roadside maintenance for the California Department of Transportation, planned to keep his job.
"I'm taking a week off," he said. "I like working there. I like the people I work with."
Anup Singh, owner of the 7-Eleven where the winning ticket was bought, said Sunday that ticket sales had been relatively slow Saturday despite the $84 million jackpot.
But since the winners were announced, lotto tickets were flying.
"We're happy that (the family) is happy," Singh said. "There is a lot of excitement here."
Singh said he also hoped the family will adjust well to the winnings.
"Money is not that important in life. It comes, it has a purpose, and it is used," Singh said. "I hope they put the money in a trust for their children and I hope they remember that they need to work hard, and learn the value of money."
The store had a millionaire before: In 1994, a ticket sold there brought $7 million, Singh said. Four or five years ago somebody won $50,000.
The store that sells the winning ticket gets one-half of 1 percent of the jackpot, or $420,000 for this ticket.
The record SuperLotto Plus jackpot is $141 million, won by a San Jose man in 2001. The largest lotto jackpot in California was $193 million in 2002, split among three tickets.
Before Saturday's drawing, the Antelope Valley's biggest lottery winners had been Joelle Fesler and her husband, Thomas, who in 2002 split an $82 million SuperLotto Plus jackpot with a second ticket bought in Long Beach. Fesler had bought her winning ticket at Mike's Beverage Shop in Quartz Hill, less than a mile from their mobile home park.
In 1998, hospital workers Denise and George Leano of Lancaster won $20 million.
"It's still very scary," Nancy said. "We sat around last night and even this morning, still in awe."