The Big Win : Store Worker From India Counts the Ways He’ll Spend His $10.8 Million

Harbans Singh Grewal, the cheerful but unassuming manager of a 7-Eleven store in Anaheim, often would tease his boss by saying: I’ll buy this place when I win the lottery.

The $7-an-hour employee, who came from India four years ago to seek his fortune in the convenience store business, was only half-joking. Grewal, 37, said Monday that he will buy his very own store with his winnings from last Wednesday’s $10.8-million Lotto game.

A beaming Grewal said he was elated as he stood surrounded by relatives and his favorite customers--even his barber--on Monday outside the Harbor Boulevard store where he bought last week’s winning Quick Pick Lotto 6/49 ticket.

Dressed in a new taupe suit, the son of a Sikh farming family of modest means looked visibly overwhelmed as his boss and a friend told reporters and curious onlookers that Grewal (pronounced gray-wall) will soon be making $966.58 per day--after taxes--for the next 20 years.

Although it will be at least a few weeks before Grewal receives his first annual check of $352,800--the government takes out 30% in taxes--the bachelor already had seen an attorney and several accountants to establish a budget and financial schedule.

“We want to get him started on the right track,” said his boss, 25-year-old store owner Kuljeet Nijjar. “This year the house, next year tax bonds. . . . Look at that,” he laughed, pointing at Grewal circled by a group of women. “He’s already getting offers of marriage.”

Grewal had not even checked in with Lottery officials until after he left the store at about 3:30 p.m. Monday.

Not to worry about losing the winning ticket, though. Grewal made photocopies of the original, which he then placed along with the copies in a number of safe deposit boxes at various banks. Then he went to Palm Springs for two days. Monday afternoon, he was still pulling spare copies from his pockets.

Grewal said he has spent about $3 a week playing Lotto 6/49. Toward the end of his shift last Wednesday evening--at precisely 7:44 p.m.--he played the Quick Pick, letting the Lotto machine select the six numbers for him. Then he went home to his apartment down the street from the store.

While he showered for a party, his brother, Rajwant Singh Grewal, watched the televised spin for the six winning numbers.

“I said, ‘Get out; you have six numbers!’ ” his brother recalled. “He said, ‘You joking.’ I catch him in my arms, we start laughing, then we (calmed) down.”

The winner added, “I really love America!”

By Monday afternoon, Grewal already had been house shopping with friends in the Anaheim Hills area, spent $2,000 on clothes and checked into the Embassy Suites in Anaheim as part of the celebration.

Besides a home, Grewal said, he also wants “a nice car,” maybe a Mercedes like the one he rode in as he pulled up in front of the 7-Eleven store with his boss.

Nijjar described his employee as a very good worker who is “extremely honest.” Grewal described himself as very religious and said he had not forgotten his religion or his hometown.

He intends to spend about $10,000 for a dispensary or medical clinic of some sort in the Indian village of Dhandra, where his parents still live.

And he hopes to persuade his two sisters and other relatives living in India to visit him in Orange County, a trip he said he would pay for.

But he has yet to tell his parents of his good fortune, he said laughing, because they could be “too much happy” and have “a heart attack.”

TOP ORANGE COUNTY WINNERS OF THE STATE LOTTERY

Winner Age Resides Winnings Game Harbans Singh Grewal 37 Anaheim $10.8 million Lotto Bonnie Snell 56 Huntington Beach $3 million Big Spin Arlie Ragle 61 Anaheim $2.325 million Big Spin Steven Lawler n/a Costa Mesa $2.2 million Lotto Barbara Grabill 42 Orange $1 million Big Spin Gary Brotherton 39 Anaheim $1 million Big Spin Cori Turner 24 Anaheim $1 million Big Spin * Harry Hunter 56 Garden Grove $800,000 Lotto * George MacKelvey 56 Costa Mesa $800,000 Lotto Sara Fields 39 Anaheim $675,413 Lotto Terry Wollaston 36 Orange $387,216 Lotto

* Split a $1.6 million Lotto jackpot.

Compiled by Brad Hanson