One winner is daughter of Senator who wrote the N.J. Lottery law
Includes video report
Among the 16 co-workers who came forward today to claim their piece of a $448 million Powerball jackpot were a woman who lost her home in Superstorm Sandy and the daughter of the man who is credited as the "father of the New Jersey lottery."
The group of Ocean County Vehicle Services Department employees, dubbed the "Ocean's 16," cheered for each other as they were introduced for the first time today in public as the group that held one of the three lucky tickets from last week's drawing.
Darlene Riccio, one of the winners, said she had been going through an "extremely rough year" after she lost her home in Superstorm Sandy.
"One of the first things I'm going to do is a buy a home," she said. "When I found out we won, I was speechless. I thought they were joking and it was the worst joke ever."
Barbara Jo Riivald, the daughter of late New Jersey state Sen. John F. Brown, who introduced legislation that brought the lottery to New Jersey, said after she found out she had won, she wanted nothing more than to call her late parents.
"My father was bigger than life. He was always my hero," she said. "The only thing I wanted to do that next morning was call him and call my mom, and then I realized I couldn't do that."
The nine women and seven men posed on Monday with a giant $86 million check, the lump-sum value of their ticket. Each worker will get about $3.8 million after taxes, according to lottery officials.
Lisa Presutto, the woman who collected $6 from each group member and purchased the winning tickets, said she took on the duty because she had to stop at an Acme store on the way home to pick up a prescription and dinner.
While drinking her morning coffee last week, she discovered the winning Powerball was 32, a number she knew the group had, and so she decided to check their tickets.
"I immediately started shaking," she said, after she realized they had won.
"I woke my poor husband up," she said.
"He's no longer poor!" someone in the group shouted, garnering laughs from the group of new millionaires.
After her husband checked the tickets and saw the numbers were a match, Presutto said she text messaged her supervisor, who initially told her it was "too early" to be playing a prank.
After she verified the numbers, Presutto's supervisor texted back with a reaction that said it all:
"O-M-G!" she said, according to Presutto.
The winning ticket was sold in Little Egg Harbor Township, just miles from where the center of Superstorm Sandy made landfall in October, causing heavy damage along coastal Ocean County.
Despite the fact that the "close-knit group" now consists of newly-minted millionaires, the 16 employees all showed up for work last week.
While some of the winners said they planned to continue working, Joe Odoardo said he almost retired last year and plans to make it official after collecting his multimillion-dollar payday.
"It's just a miracle and shocking," he said. "After 34 years and almost retiring, this happens? You just don't have another choice!"
(Click to display full-size in gallery)
RAW VIDEO: Watch the press conference
Note: We apologize for the poor audio quality experienced in some of the video. It seems the NJ Lottery camera operator was covering the microphone for some of the press conference, and they did not use an external microphone.
Good for them. They got to claim the money without having one of their co-workers sue.
Congrats people, enjoy your good fortune.
Congrats to the 16 new millionaires.
Good on ya!!
Good-looking group. Nice chunk of change for each of them. Not enough for multiple mansions or fleet of exotic cars, but, especially for the older ones, a great way to enter the golden years. For all of them, it should be goodbye debt and a hello solid layer of financial comfort.
Congratulations, Ocean's 16, on your tidy PB jackpot win! May your joy during this press conference linger your entire lifetime.
Nice group of people, I wish them all the best.
Best wishes and enjoy spending the money.
Congratulation Ocean 16
"ToDay's the Day"
"The nine women and seven men posed on Monday with a giant $86 million check, the lump-sum value of their ticket."
The big check only showed the cash amount? I can only assume that somebody will be losing their job.
I love the men who showed up in disguises.
Good stories, very emotional.
Congratulations!!!
golfer:
UR>>>>>>>>A>>>>>>>WINNER^^^^^^IF U can tell difference in gull's or bouy's in that>>>pitcher^^!!
GOOD post>>>>golfer>>WINNER^^^^^^ U can tell difference > PLAY 4D>>>>>>>>>>>>>JACKPOT'$$
Meanwhile the caption on the picture when enlarged says "Powerball jackpot winner Pedro Quezada and his wife Ines Sanchez arrive at lottery headquarters Tuesady."
lol Ronnie316 it seems Pedro is not yet done with us. He most def should join LP
That would be great to hear from Pedro, I wonder if he accepts fan mail?
I don't think he would. He would be bombarded with so many money requests, he would need a uHaul truck daily to pick up the mail from the post office. I don't think the post office would deliver that. I wouldn't
If the mail has proper postage on it,they will deliver it.Pedro probably wishes they wouldn't,though.
Found a FB page that is quite empty. I dont know if its real or not but he welcomes messages.
I sent an invite to LP.
https://www.facebook.com/pages/Pedro-Quezada/183558615148987
Yeah, I wasn't serious when I said that. In fact the post office is struggling to be profitable so customers must be kept happy.
Now thats wassup
He claims to have closed his personal page and opened this one. The first post is July 31 of this year.
Have a good night everyone. I will let you know if Pedro gets back to me via FB messaging.
I left FB last year May so I don't think I can communicate with him if indeed this is his real FB personal page.
Im not a frequent FB user so I dont know if anyone can message or not, but I did.
Alright man. It's time for me to night night
Not a great fan of this Ocean 16 group....
But they arent looking for a fan club :)
May they enjoy the little bit they are getting after NJ takes their chunk.
Hi Game Girl, not a fan of Ocean 16? Why not?
wow; good for her and the others- I hope to win in Canada the lottery here-
Congratulations "Ocean 16". Enjoy your win and festivities!
short story...let's help the sandy victims...are you serious? yes....i mean the demographics are right...why not? Okay boss, i will program the computers.
I was wondering that my ownself...
Maybe one's an ex?
Congrats to Ocean's 16
"Not a great fan of this Ocean 16 group"....
Due tell
Congrats to the Ocean 16! May you all live in comfort and free from debt and money worries for the rest of your lives.
On a side note, as one who lives in the gulf hurricane zone, I was going to go on a rant about the label 'Superstorm' Sandy (a low cat 1 hurricane when it hit Jersey). Had Ike hit Jersey with the storm surge that leveled Bolivar, or the surge from Katrina's dirty side that hit Mississippi, Jersey would have been wiped clean 5 miles inland and there'd have been thousands dead.
What has the Ocean 16 group done to make you feel this way? As far as I know, they are all a bunch of working class folks who finally struck it big. I'm glad for them.
WOW!!!
...Green eyed monster?
...Just plain ignoramus?
...Got dumped by two of them?
...Your "SMART" relative refused to join the group?
...Woke up on the wrong side of the bed, after being bitten by fat bedbugs for 8hrs?
...Just a natural born "loser/hater/big baby/little crybaby?"
...Don't feel bad, we have sometimes, encountered people that just can't stand, seeing other people progress.
...I'm going to go get my POWERBALL tickets now. Wish me luck?
...RIGHT?
***NEWSFLASH..THEY ARE ALL MILLIONAIRES WHETHER YOU LIKE IT OR NOT***
So we have this group and the Minnesota guy that came forward - do we know the third winner(s)?
At first, did not think the beard, hat, and sunglasses were a disguise. Being that he worked for the county road department;thought that was his usual appearance. But then again, you may be right.
I think that's his regular look, seen him on a TV interview, had his wife there and she was defiantly not wearing a disguise.
I "liked" Pedro's FB page and sent him another message saying how great the people of LP are.
$ 3.8 million after taxes is a "little bit?" I sense the green eyed monster is alive and well.
With that "little bit" I would make sure I got a check every month and leave the principle alone.
Well, the northeast is where most of the bleeding heart libbies are, meshed with the big media in NY, so there you are. A cat 1 storm gets major press and major crying. A few years ago the midwest got flooded by storms and the Mississippi, and the press and Washington acted like nothing happened. The folks in the midwest didn't make a big deal, they just did what they had to do to recover.
Congrats , God bless ! One of the players father has Cancer , hopefully he will beat it and enjoy his son's new found wealth . Debt free and to enjoy life what a wonderful feeling that must be to all of them !
And we are still waiting on the money and help promised by FEMA.And the emergency housing (trailers) are still parked outside of Hope,Arkansas.I'm still trying to figure out why they were shipped to Hope,Arkansas in the first place.Must have been someone in Hope,Arkansas with a lot of political pull.Wonder who that could be?
I can't imagine...
I've seen those in auctions for 10k, no lie. I bet those are up for sale soon. Amazing how much $$$ is wasted.
Somebody is just messing with Pedro, and his "Muslim friends". SCAM.
Only if you have $1billy in your bank account.
I am so happy for them that they are able to have their blessing when they needed most. Now, Ms. Riccio will be able to have her new home. I am glad that there's no disagreements among them. Having lottery pool is okay especially if the one who will handle is not greedy to have the prize for himself only.