Just the Ticket : Zoo Bird Keeper Among 20 Winners to Get a Shot at Top Lottery Prize

Richard Rhoan was cleaning up after the kiwis when he got the news.

Rhoan, a 52-year-old bird keeper at the San Diego Zoo, was one of 10 Californians selected Tuesday to take a spin at winning $2 million in the state’s first televised lottery jackpot.

The call from California Lottery officials in Whittier Tuesday morning was a surprise. Rhoan said he thought he had missed his chance for the big prize when his name was not among the 10 picked last week from among 6,250 winners of $100 prizes.

“I thought that was it,” Rhoan said. “I was just waiting for my $100 to come in.”

But heavy ticket sales prompted lottery officials to double the number of participants in the roulette-style giveaway set for Monday. And Rhoan, a father of two and a 14-year zoo veteran who had never before won a contest, will be there.

He is guaranteed to increase his winnings to at least $10,000. Naturally Rhoan, who is in the midst of buying a house, wouldn’t mind parlaying a $1 gamble into $2 million.

“I could get two or three houses, probably,” he joked.

Rhoan estimated that he has spent less than $50 on lottery tickets since the California game’s record-shattering inauguration Oct. 3. The ticket that has vaulted him to a shot at the lottery’s richest prize was purchased at the Plaza Bowl in National City with the earnings from a $2 winner, he said.

After Estelle Feuers, president of Los Angeles City College, drew his number from a drum at the lottery’s Whittier office, Rhoan received a call at the zoo, where he was rinsing out feeding pans in the kiwi enclosure.

Co-workers congratulated him but made little fuss, Rhoan said. None so far has asked for a loan, he added.

Monday night at a Hollywood television studio, Rhoan and the 19 other $100 winners will take turns spinning a wheel to determine which of them will win $10,000, $50,000, $100,000 and $2 million.

Others chosen at the drawing Tuesday are Daniel Cruz, 33, of Panorama City, an aircraft products inspector; Joseph Frontino of Riverside; Vernon Hessing, 33, of Chatsworth, a computer operator; Abed Jebaieh, 27, of Simi Valley, owner of a liquor store; Lorenzo Martinez, 46, of Huntington Park, a bus driver with the Southern California Rapid Transit District; Charles Moore of Beaumont; Linda Scott of Jackson; Donna Sobb of Sacramento, and Ben White of Los Angeles.

Tuesday’s drawing was made earlier than scheduled because tickets have sold much faster than expected. Nearly 150 million tickets had been sold by Friday, according to Lottery Director M. Mark Michalko.

Michalko also said Tuesday that the state attorney general’s office has advised him that it is legal for retailers to give out free lottery tickets with minimum purchases. The Lottery Commission had requested the opinion from Atty. Gen. John Van de Kamp last week after some law enforcement officials questioned the legality of the giveaways.

Many of the promotions are similar to one advertised by the Alpha Beta supermarket chain, which offered one free ticket with a $10 minimum purchase. Vons and Safeway gave away free tickets with the purchase of 12-packs of soft drinks.

In another development on Tuesday, Lew Ritter, director of security for the lottery, announced that a man suspected of forging a $5,000 winning ticket had been arrested in Fresno and that other arrests are expected in similar cases across the state.

Ritter said the forgeries involve slicing dollar figures from several tickets and pasting them together to form a winning ticket.

The man arrested in Fresno was identified as Harry Begosian, 60. Ritter said Begosian presented his ticket Oct. 15 and filed for a $5,000 prize.