No cameras, please! Big Lotto winner's shy

Aug 13, 2003, 3:36 am (3 comments)

Florida Lottery

Money talks. But that doesn't mean Jacquelin Ferdinand has to.

Florida's newest jumbo Lotto winner, who Monday morning claimed the second half of the $80.9 million jackpot, doesn't want any publicity.

The jackpot was the 10th largest in state lottery history, and Ferdinand split it with a Hollywood couple. The $40.45 million each winning ticket received -- minus taxes, of course -- is the largest amount collected on any jackpot split two or more ways.

Ferdinand, 55, told Lotto officials it was the first time he had bought a lottery ticket.

He chose the winning numbers -- 12, 13, 21, 31, 37 and 47 at random at the Roque Station Enterprise, 2020 NW 17th Ave. He didn't bother to check the numbers until two weeks after the July 26 drawing.

"He's a shy winner," said Lotto representative Sheila Griffin. "He didn't want photos this morning when he came to claim it. He didn't even want us to send out a press release."

At his house just west of Miami Shores, attention was less on the $21,601,782.48 one-time payout Ferdinand had formally accepted that morning and more on the constant calls from the media.

Ferdinand, who is originally from Haiti, was out, but two young women who said they were his daughters bore the brunt of the attention.

They ran outside to meet the media, trying to keep the neighbors from finding out their news.

Inside their home, a back apartment in a house just off a road that runs like a vein down Interstate 95, the phone rang incessantly. Channels 7 and 4 called, in quick succession.

"Don't people know we don't want to talk?" the older daughter said, an edge of panic in her voice.

Ferdinand called, ordering the women not to speak to the media.

"I don't want this invasion of my privacy," he said on the phone to The Herald. "I told those people in Tallahassee I didn't want to talk to anyone."

Miami Herald

Tags for this story

Other popular tags

Comments

Todd's avatarTodd

I'm shocked no one has picked up on the line:



Ferdinand, 55, told Lotto officials it was the first time he had bought a lottery ticket.

golotto

Patricia Frierson who recently won the $91m Calif. SuperLotto Plus was also 55 years old.... 55 appears to be lucky :)

Todd's avatarTodd

Good catch!

End of comments
Subscribe to this news story
Guest