California nail technician wins $228M Powerball jackpot

Sep 26, 2014, 11:17 pm (57 comments)

Powerball

Wants to remain "normal man"

A nail technician who has played the lottery over the years by scraping together nickels and dimes from tips at the salon is now a multi-millionaire several times over.

Vinh Nguyen claimed his $228.4 million jackpot late Thursday afternoon, after buying the winning Powerball ticket at a family-run chain, Key Market on Sourth Norfolk Street in San Mateo, according an announcement on Friday by the California Lottery.

Nguyen was the the sole winner in Wednesday night's Powerball drawing matching the numbers 7, 14, 24, 41, 21 and the Powerball number 26. His first thought, according to the lottery staff he spoke to: "I read the numbers, I didn't think I had won."

Nguyen declined media interviews. His age, city of residence and where he works have not been disclosed. However, people who work in the same mall said Nguyen works at Nail Resort, directly acros from the market. No one was at the shop on Friday, and no one answered the phone call there, either.

In a private interview with lottery officials, Nguyen said he has been playing the lottery for the last half decade, deciding how much he spends every week depending on how well he does in tips at work.

Nguyen spent $30 buying 15 Powerball tickets for Wednesday's drawing. He decided on the "annuity payment option," which will give him the full $228,467,735 jackpot paid out over 30 years. Lottery spokesman Gregory Parashak said put simply, that amount turns out to be about $138,000,000 spread out over three decades after taxes.

Ngueyn said there was no great secret or science to the methodology he used for picking his numbers.

"They were all random," Nguyen said. " Whatever numbers come into my head I pick."

The win also benefits the market that sold Nguyen the lucky ticket. Owners Jack and Nancy Dehoff will get $1 million.

"We don't have final plans yet for the money," Chris Dehoff, president of Dehoff's Key Markets, told lottery officials in a statement. "We have all kinds of improvements for the stores that we are always working on and we are discussing other things. This is a nice windfall since the margins in our business are so thin."

The market has sold a $10,000 winning lottery ticket before, but nothing like this.

As for Nguyen, he told the California Lottery he has no plans for the money yet. He did say, however, he doesn't want the money to go to his head.

"I just want to be a normal man," Nguyen said.

Thanks to leland for the tip.

NBC Bay Area

Comments

sully16's avatarsully16

He nailed it! Congrats to the lucky guy.Cheers

rcbbuckeye's avatarrcbbuckeye

I like to see folks like this win.

Nice story.

maringoman's avatarmaringoman

The life changer is right here. Is he 26 years old? Congratulations Mr Nguyen.

Also nice is the fact that the store that sold the life changer will get a cool $1M. CA lottery you rock!

Toronto

Congrats to him. and he chose the annuity

Shelby Mustang

Quote: Originally posted by sully16 on Sep 26, 2014

He nailed it! Congrats to the lucky guy.Cheers

Awesome quip.. the nail guy nailed it for real LOL.

user71926's avataruser71926

Congrats Vinh!  My friend's name is Vinh too I may get lucy now LOL!

ThatScaryChick's avatarThatScaryChick

Quote: Originally posted by sully16 on Sep 26, 2014

He nailed it! Congrats to the lucky guy.Cheers

Yes, Congrats to him! Yes Nod

RedStang's avatarRedStang

Quote: Originally posted by maringoman on Sep 26, 2014

The life changer is right here. Is he 26 years old? Congratulations Mr Nguyen.

Also nice is the fact that the store that sold the life changer will get a cool $1M. CA lottery you rock!

Tried this so many times. Can't imagine it actually working.

myturn's avatarmyturn

The winner should be allowed to remain anonymous. If I won that much I would not want my identity published. 

Who would want every nutcase knowing they had that much?

noise-gate

Congratulations....Party

Good Luck with trying to lead a "normal Life" .

l must say that l admire his stance in having his " interview over the phone" , no cameras flashing in your face, none of that cardboard cheque crap they want you to hold...In fact one could ask and answer your own questions..

Example : How did l pick my numbers ?- let me see, oh yeah on page #1 ... It says l wrote down the numbers of my neighbors license plates.

Do l intend to take the cash lump sum or annuity? -page 3 says "......

noise-gate

Quote: Originally posted by rcbbuckeye on Sep 26, 2014

I like to see folks like this win.

Nice story.

I Agree! ..especially reading about him counting nickels and dimes hoping to make it big. l wonder how long it took him to come up with $30.00?

PrinceRene

Quote: Originally posted by myturn on Sep 27, 2014

The winner should be allowed to remain anonymous. If I won that much I would not want my identity published. 

Who would want every nutcase knowing they had that much?

If someone from California was able to claim the jackpot anonymously, the  conspiracy folks would claim no one got the money and MUSL, aka the Illuminati, was keeping the money all for themselves. That is why MUSL is rigging the drawings in California's favor, so they can keep the money and use the cash to buy chemtrails which they can spray on the unsuspecting public.

helpmewin's avatarhelpmewin

Congratulations to the Winner Spend WiselyParty

hearsetrax's avatarhearsetrax

Twitchnow if he can avoid the scam of selling his future payments for lump sums , he should do well

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