Retired Brooklyn bus driver hits $7M Cash4Life jackpot

Jan 29, 2015, 8:47 am (33 comments)

New York Lottery

The next stop for this retired Brooklyn bus driver is Easy Street.

Frederick McClendon claimed his $7 million prize Tuesday in the New York Lottery's Cash4Life draw game.

"I usually play the Powerball or Mega Millions games," said McClendon, who says he spent 15 years driving a bus in Brooklyn and the Bronx. "Instinct told me to buy a Cash4Life ticket this time."

McClendon said he bought his ticket to a bright new future on Nov. 24 when he walked into MX Wines & Spirits in Halsey St. in Brooklyn.

"Just happened to buy a Quick Pick," he said. "I cried. My first reaction was, I cried. Tears of joy."

A few days after the drawing, the wine store clerk told him someone bought the top-prize ticket. He checked his ticket and realized he was the lucky winner.

"I checked my ticket right in the store," said McClendon, who said he has bought tickets there off and on for many years.

McClendon said his family didn't buy his story right away.

"They didn't believe me," he said while standing beside his lawyer. "It's just like, you're lying."

Not anymore.

McClendon, who plans to take a lump sum payment that amounts to $4.3 million after withholdings, said he plans to help his family and put aside some college money for his kids.

"It's about my family," he said. "I love my family."

Asked if he'll take public transportation again, McClendon smiled and said, "I have to, but I'd rather not discuss the reasons why."

McClendon is the 160th New Yorker to claim a prize of $1 million or more from 2014 drawings.

Lottery officials say there is still another $7 million Cash4Life winner out there who purchased the ticket in July at the Milky Way Deli on Ralph St. in Canarsie, Brooklyn — and has not collected his or her prize money.

Cash4Life is a multi-state game operated by the New York and New Jersey lotteries.  Drawings are held Monday and Thursday at 8:57 pm.

News story photo(Click to display full-size in gallery)

Thanks to Leland for the tip.

Daily News, Lottery Post Staff

Comments

PrinceRene

Congratulations Mr. McClendon.

IPlayWeekly's avatarIPlayWeekly

Big time congrats

haymaker's avatarhaymaker

Ralph Kramden : Hey Alice, just wait til you see how this furniture looks in a park ave apartment ! LOL

maringoman's avatarmaringoman

Nice win to end 2014.

sweetie7398's avatarsweetie7398

Quote: Originally posted by maringoman on Jan 29, 2015

Nice win to end 2014.

Definitely.  This game's first drawing is tonight in South Carolina.

sweetie7398's avatarsweetie7398

Quote: Originally posted by sweetie7398 on Jan 29, 2015

Definitely.  This game's first drawing is tonight in South Carolina.

The game is called Lucky 4 life. I guess it's the same concept, just a different name.

maringoman's avatarmaringoman

Quote: Originally posted by sweetie7398 on Jan 29, 2015

The game is called Lucky 4 life. I guess it's the same concept, just a different name.

Thumbs Up Good luck. 

I hit small prizes on this game more often than I do on the 2 big games

Technut's avatarTechnut

Good for Mr. McClendon glad to see another guy hit easy street. (c8

shadowlady's avatarshadowlady

Congratulations to the lucky winner.

DDOH937's avatarDDOH937

Good for you man, be wise, relax and try to enjoy. Happy for you brother. Be smart and enjoy, enjoy, enjoy!!!

jack27

Im not buying it. The lottery is not real.

ThatScaryChick's avatarThatScaryChick

Quote: Originally posted by jack27 on Jan 29, 2015

Im not buying it. The lottery is not real.

How so?

 

Congrats to Frederick McClendon on his nice win! Cheers

jack27

Quote: Originally posted by ThatScaryChick on Jan 29, 2015

How so?

 

Congrats to Frederick McClendon on his nice win! Cheers

They hire actors and pay them a small amount to appear as winners with the promise that he or she wont open their mouth to talk about it or they will be killed if they expose the truth.

rcbbuckeye's avatarrcbbuckeye

Quote: Originally posted by jack27 on Jan 29, 2015

They hire actors and pay them a small amount to appear as winners with the promise that he or she wont open their mouth to talk about it or they will be killed if they expose the truth.

Really?

You create an account just to log on and spill your crap?

LOL. You are simply a troll. Now do something constructive like clean your mom and dad's basement you're living in.

DDOH937's avatarDDOH937

Quote: Originally posted by jack27 on Jan 29, 2015

They hire actors and pay them a small amount to appear as winners with the promise that he or she wont open their mouth to talk about it or they will be killed if they expose the truth.

Well i guess my neighbor who won $61 million then quit her job as a medical assistant was a very very highly paid actor all this time then???? And all this time i thought...

oh wait..

surimaribo24's avatarsurimaribo24

congrats to the winner.

is on tonight get your tickets.

Drenick1's avatarDrenick1

Congratulations to the retired bus driver! but once again the lottery officials just love to exaggerate what the winner actually received. The annuity prize value is $7 million and the cash lump option is $4.36 million BEFORE taxes.

The New York lottery conveniently mentioned that his take home pay after taxes was $4.3 million when in fact it will be just a bit over $2 million after all federal and state taxes are paid. Too bad the NY lottery won't be held accountable for the entire $4.3 million that they touted.

eddessaknight's avatareddessaknight

Congrats= Hurray!

Sounds like something out of the "Honeymooners" sitcom with yhe 'great one' , Jackie Gleason, driving the old Brooklyn Bus line LOL

Fortuna Smiled Upon Him

Eddessa_KnightSun Smiley

HaveABall's avatarHaveABall

Quote: Originally posted by Drenick1 on Jan 29, 2015

Congratulations to the retired bus driver! but once again the lottery officials just love to exaggerate what the winner actually received. The annuity prize value is $7 million and the cash lump option is $4.36 million BEFORE taxes.

The New York lottery conveniently mentioned that his take home pay after taxes was $4.3 million when in fact it will be just a bit over $2 million after all federal and state taxes are paid. Too bad the NY lottery won't be held accountable for the entire $4.3 million that they touted.

Well, professional writers have been trained to NEVER accept supplied/stated figures as accurate.  The writer (or their proofer/facts checker) is supposed to check/research each sentence BEFORE an article goes to press. 

Did the "facts checker" for this article get fired or laid-off and not replaced?

Crazy

prosperity1's avatarprosperity1

Halsey street in the house...... i use to play when i was a kid on the corner of halsey n stuyvasent.....and bridge st church is right there congrats  all the way from fl....

Drum

dallascowboyfan's avatardallascowboyfan

Congratulations Mr. McClendon Thumbs Up

Gleno's avatarGleno

Congrats to Mr McClendon.

Wink

sanman$

Retired bus driver waits two months to collect his "pot of gold." He purchased his winning ticket in a liqueur store. What did he do ?

Did he start celebrating an go on a two month long lost weekend ?

myturn's avatarmyturn

Congratulations and jubilations!

 

With his identy made public he will be unable to continue working as a bus driver.

CDanaT's avatarCDanaT

Nice story, very nice payday, enjoy retirement. I believe I will be right there with him in the near future.  Thumbs Up

mypiemaster's avatarmypiemaster

Congrats. Stay away from liquor stores and don't drink up your windfall.

sanman$

No reason why he couldn't keep working. I worked with Sergio martini, a NYC dept. of sanitation worker who won $10.3 million dollars playing powerball on January 6,1996. He kept working for a year and a half in order to get a fifteen year pension. About twenty of us would give him a dollar to buy us powerball tickets. He used to give us our tickets a day or two after the drawing. No one ever complained. After he won he would now give us our tickets a day or two before the drawing. He used to also look for Marlboro miles in the garbage. After he won he bought who ever he worked with a meal at a greasy spoon dinner. And when his mother died he asked  each one of us for five dollars.

Get paid's avatarGet paid

Good Job Fred. Retired with several mill in the bank. Enjoy ur life you an ur family.

maringoman's avatarmaringoman

Quote: Originally posted by Drenick1 on Jan 29, 2015

Congratulations to the retired bus driver! but once again the lottery officials just love to exaggerate what the winner actually received. The annuity prize value is $7 million and the cash lump option is $4.36 million BEFORE taxes.

The New York lottery conveniently mentioned that his take home pay after taxes was $4.3 million when in fact it will be just a bit over $2 million after all federal and state taxes are paid. Too bad the NY lottery won't be held accountable for the entire $4.3 million that they touted.

I'm curious to know where you got your $4.3M figure from. It is my understanding that $7M is the lumpsum payout as can be seen here under the Odds and Prizes tab

http://www.state.nj.us/lottery/games/1-9_cash4life.shtml

Drenick1's avatarDrenick1

Quote: Originally posted by maringoman on Jan 30, 2015

I'm curious to know where you got your $4.3M figure from. It is my understanding that $7M is the lumpsum payout as can be seen here under the Odds and Prizes tab

http://www.state.nj.us/lottery/games/1-9_cash4life.shtml

I got the info from an online article. I saw the NJ website you provided and I think it is wrong,  think about it this is a $7 million prize that is paid out over 20-years. The prize is suppose to be $1,000 per day for life but in reality it's only 20-years. Why would they even pay out the entire prize value as a 1-time lump sum when no other lottery agency would even do that.

It would be nice if all jackpot prize amounts were valued as advertised but unfortunately it is not.

maringoman's avatarmaringoman

Quote: Originally posted by Drenick1 on Jan 31, 2015

I got the info from an online article. I saw the NJ website you provided and I think it is wrong,  think about it this is a $7 million prize that is paid out over 20-years. The prize is suppose to be $1,000 per day for life but in reality it's only 20-years. Why would they even pay out the entire prize value as a 1-time lump sum when no other lottery agency would even do that.

It would be nice if all jackpot prize amounts were valued as advertised but unfortunately it is not.

The website I provided is the official NJ Lottery website.    I'd like to see that article when you get a chance.

Drenick1's avatarDrenick1

Quote: Originally posted by maringoman on Jan 31, 2015

The website I provided is the official NJ Lottery website.    I'd like to see that article when you get a chance.

I tried doing another search on NY news site but had no luck. Perhaps the error was fixed or it was a mistake on my part where I mistook the $4.3 million lump sum as before taxes.

This prize still doesn't make sense to me as $1,000 per day comes out to $365k per year with a 20-year max cap. That means if the winner took the annuity payments it would amount to $7.3 million before taxes. I don't think anyone in their right mind would choose that option if they can get $7 million right up front.

I never play scratch off tickets but if this $2.00 per ticket $7 million Cash4life game was offered anywhere near North Carolina I would most definitely play it.

maringoman's avatarmaringoman

Quote: Originally posted by Drenick1 on Feb 1, 2015

I tried doing another search on NY news site but had no luck. Perhaps the error was fixed or it was a mistake on my part where I mistook the $4.3 million lump sum as before taxes.

This prize still doesn't make sense to me as $1,000 per day comes out to $365k per year with a 20-year max cap. That means if the winner took the annuity payments it would amount to $7.3 million before taxes. I don't think anyone in their right mind would choose that option if they can get $7 million right up front.

I never play scratch off tickets but if this $2.00 per ticket $7 million Cash4life game was offered anywhere near North Carolina I would most definitely play it.

I see where the confusion is coming from. I think you're confusing the $2,500 a Week For Life/$5,000 a Week For Life instant games with this Cash For Life game. Cash For Life is a draw type game with draws on Monday and Thursday evenings while the first two are scratch cards. 

I think the odds of hitting that $7M are about 1 : 21,846,048. Twitch

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