Paul Liberatore

Bay Area News Group

A Danville woman won a $2 million house in Marin County with a raffle ticket she bought as an anniversary gift for her husband, who had just been laid off from his job.

"I'm floored," said Susan Wells, who hadn't told her husband she had purchased the ticket. "I can't even believe this has happened. Needless to say, my husband is very surprised."

On Wednesday, Brad Wells, who is in his early 50s, was laid off from his job as a sales executive for a high-tech Silicon Valley electronics company. Susan Wells also is unemployed.

"I got laid off on Wednesday and the company went bankrupt on Friday," he said. "It's been a really rough ride for the last year. This gives us an unbelievable lift."

Susan Wells said that she bought the raffle ticket on a whim to secretly celebrate their 16th wedding anniversary.

The couple, who do not have children, own their home in Danville and said they would have to think about whether to take the Marin house or the alternative prize, about $1.2 million in cash.

"We're discussing that right now," she said. "We're still trying to make that decision."

After getting the winning phone call Saturday, Brad Wells immediately went to the Community Action Marin Web site to look at the 4,400-square-foot home on a hilltop in San Rafael.

"The views are spectacular," he said. "We really love the house. But the cash sounds good, too."

They planned to celebrate by having dinner with their neighbors.

Community Action Marin netted about $1.3 million from the raffle, the second year it has held the event, down from $2 million last year, according to Russ Hamel, Community Action Marin's director of development.

Incorporated in 1966 as the county's official antipoverty agency, nonprofit Community Action Marin is now Marin's largest private social services organization. More than 4,000 people benefit from its services every day.

In the current recession, however, Hamel said the agency has seen a 25 percent to 30 percent increase in demand for its services.

"These are from middle-class people who have lost their jobs," he said. "Like the people who won the house."

Man Loses Job Then Wins This $2 Million House [PICS] (nbcbayarea.com)