2 Other Winners Claim Shares of $41-Million N.Y. Lottery Pot
A computer consultant and a bartender ended the suspense Friday by coming forward to claim one-third shares of $41 million, the largest lottery jackpot in North American history.
Joseph Moore, 36, and Debbie Turcotte, 29, joined 21 Mount Vernon factory workers who shared a single winning ticket for the Lotto 48 pot.
Moore and Turcotte each will get a check for $520,634 in two weeks, the first of 20 annual installments that will total $13,666,666.
“I knew eventually I was going to win,” said Turcotte, a part-time bartender from Troy. She went to state Lottery Division headquarters in Albany Friday afternoon.
Turcotte said she discovered that she had the six winning numbers--14, 17, 22, 23, 30, 47--Thursday morning, but didn’t turn in the ticket immediately because “we wanted to get things squared away.”
Will Share With Family
Turcotte said she will share her winnings with her mother, Jane Palladino, 49, and her sister, Sandra Sidoti, 28, both of the Albany suburb of Colonie.
Turcotte and her husband, Albany firefighter Al Turcotte, have three children.
Moore, of Brooklyn, came out of hiding and spoke to reporters Friday. “Until I walked in this room, I was numb,” he said. “I haven’t really realized the impact of what’s happened to me yet.”
Moore said he went Thursday to the state lottery office in Williston Park on Long Island, hoping to avoid publicity for one more day. After validating Moore’s ticket, lottery officials protected his identity by giving him a box of tickets to carry so he would look like a worker, said state lottery director John D. Quinn.
Winners Still on Jobs
Meanwhile, the 21 factory workers who shared the winner’s circle Thursday reported to work as usual Friday. They work at Hantscho Inc., a manufacturer of offset printing presses.
It would “not be fair to the company not to show up--it would hold up production,” said Virat Lao, one member of “The Lucky 21,” as the group has dubbed themselves. “And they’ve been good to us.”
Despite their prizes of $650,793 each, “I don’t think anybody will retire,” said another of the winners, Wilfred Jon-Ming.
