Army Cook Gets His Ticket Verified; Now, It’s Multimillionaire Time

A 53-year-old civilian Army cook with a penchant for country music, cowboy boots and beer presented his lucky ticket to win $12 million in the state lottery’s Lotto 6/49 game Monday.

New multimillionaire Stephen Pavlinchak, of the small Monterey County town of Marina, had his ticket verified at the lottery office here and then held what one lottery employee called the “most unusual” press conference he had ever seen.

Pavlinchak, towering over lottery officials in cowboy boots and a 10-gallon hat, said he would use his prize to help his blind sister and, “get me a dog and name him Budweiser.”

Pavlinchak arrived at the lottery offices in a white Cadillac belonging to one of his roommates, Bob Smith, whom Pavlinchak said he had appointed “my manager and bodyguard.” A woman whom Pavlinchak refused to identify was sleeping in the back seat with a newspaper over her face.

A news photographer who followed him for the hourlong drive from Marina to San Jose said he stopped only once along the way--at a restaurant to use the restroom and buy a drink.

“Money don’t change nothing,” said Pavlinchak, who has worked as a cook at the Army’s Ft. Ord base since 1974. “I’m going back to work as soon as I sober up--maybe tomorrow.”

But his supervisor at the Ft. Ord mess hall said Pavlinchak had requested a week’s leave of absence.

Along with dishing out chow to the base’s noncommissioned officers, Pavlinchak said he plans to continue driving his 1977 Oldsmobile and drinking his daily beer.

“I’m a Budweiser man,” he repeated throughout the press conference.

Pavlinchak, who is divorced, said he has no plans to share his prize money with his two sons, who live in Arizona and Southern California. He does plan to share it with his 62-year-old sister, Eva, who is blind and lives in Pennsylvania.

Pavlinchak, who won a total of $12,009,480 before taxes, will receive his prize money in 20 yearly installments of about $600,000, lottery officials said. By this Friday he will have received his first $600,000 check.

The record Lotto jackpot is $17.9 million, won by Gordon Pivar of Oceanside, while the largest “Big Spin” winner so far collected $15.2 million.

The winning ticket was one of five bought by Pavlinchak on Friday, said Marsha Casas, an employee at the Food Corral, a small Marina grocery store that sold him the winning ticket.

On Sunday, lottery officials notified the Food Corral’s owner that he had sold a winning ticket.

“We waited all morning for the winner to come in,” Casas said. “Then Steve (Pavlinchak) just came in and smiled. ‘The $12-million smile’ is what we called it.”

Had Pavlinchak won his $12 million a week later, Food Corral owner Anthony Shaheen would have received 0.5%, or about $60,000, in accordance with a new lottery rule meant to encourage stores to carry tickets. But under the old arrangement, he gets a commission of only a nickel, as he does for each ticket sold. Shaheen accompanied Pavlinchak to the lottery office, but admitted that he was “a little disappointed.”

Began Celebration Sunday

“I’m one of the retailers that do deserve it,” Shaheen said.

Pavlinchak said he began celebrating with friends early Sunday. At one point, he lost the ticket in the street. Steve Smith, 20-year-old son of Pavlinchak’s “manager,” found it for him.

Pavlinchak said there no was particular reason he picked the winning numbers: 17, 20, 21, 33, 39 and 49. “Numbers are numbers,” he said.