Woman prepares for 9 months before claiming $8.8M lottery jackpot
Posted: 8/22/2008 10:18:00 PM
Backcountry resident Lynn Hagerbrant knew she'd hit the jackpot just a day after she bought her winning lottery ticket — yet she waited nearly nine months to cash in on the $8.8 million prize.
After checking her Quick Pick numbers online on Nov. 24, 2007, Hagerbrant said she realized the CT Lottery Classic Lotto ticket she'd bought at a Putnam Avenue Exxon the previous day was a winner — the single winning ticket, in fact.
Her winning numbers were: 4, 7, 10, 23, 28, and 38.
But instead of rushing to claim her prize, Hagerbrant decided to call her lawyers — mainly, she said, for assistance making long-term plans for her family's estate, as well as to ensure "added security" for her children.
"We're very careful people," Hagerbrant, a retired nurse, said. "We wanted to take more time, as a family, to figure it all out."
While the Hagerbrants were planning how they would spend the money, state lottery officials were beginning to wonder whether the prize would go unclaimed, as has been the fate of about a dozen other jackpots during the game's 25-year history.
With nobody stepping forward and less than three months remaining before the ticket would become invalid under state rules, lottery officials on Monday held a meeting to plan a statewide media blitz urging the winner to file a claim.
"Nine months is a long time," Lotto spokeswoman Diane Patterson said. "We were at a point where we decided we needed to begin searching."
But as luck would have it, the winner decided to show up and present her ticket to lottery officials just hours after they'd met, Patterson said. Hagerbrant opted to take the one-time cash lump sum value of $5,430,424, which, after tax deductions, totaled $3,801,297.
Now nearly $4 million richer, Hagerbrant said she and her family plan to invest the money wisely. No blowout parties or month-long vacations — "We're being prudent," she said, adding that "most of it is going into a nest egg." She declined to elaborate.
Hagerbrant, a volunteer for the Greenwich Coalition to Combat Underage Drinking, said she was pleased that her winning lottery ticket also will provide cash infusions for state education and health programs.
A portion of lottery proceeds goes to the state's "general fund" — which receives 34 cents on every dollar spent on a ticket — for programs in education, conservation, Medicaid and public health services, Patterson said. In fiscal year 2008, the Lottery transferred $283 million to the state's "general fund," with about $64.3 million directed to libraries, higher education and the state's Department of Education.
"My family and I, we're very involved in all sorts of charities," Hagerbrant said. "We're thrilled the money is going to some very good causes in educational social services."
The chance of winning the jackpot was roughly one in 7.1 million, though the chances of winning a prize in Classic Lotto is one in 39.3.
Thanks to mulamula for the tip.
Source: Greenwich Time
