His Days Were Numbered but It’s the Right Number

--A newspaper story about a $15.3-million Pennsylvania lottery prize, which had gone unclaimed for a year, was just the ticket for John Cruz of Cherry Hill, N.J. He and his wife, Sally, picked up the first two yearly installments--$939,979--and explained that Cruz had tossed the ticket into a drawer and never checked it until he saw the numbers in the paper--only hours before the money would have reverted to the Pennsylvania Treasury. He yelled: “That’s my number, that’s my number” as he ran to the bedroom to find the ticket, Sally Cruz said. He had bought the winning ticket after finding $20 on the floor of a mall where his wife was taking an organ lesson. Cruz recognized the numbers in the paper because he based them on the couple’s birthdays and one other number. The pair persuaded lottery officials to stay open late to take the ticket before it expired, and Cruz refused to comment on whether he obeyed the speed limit on the way to Harrisburg, Pa. “We got here as fast as we could,” he said. The ticket was studied extra closely before it was verified by the state, partly because two men had tried to collect the jackpot in April with a phony ticket. John, 70, and Sally, 65, say they don’t know how they will spend the money. They are owed 24 more annual payments of about $470,000 each.

--Bob Adams, a semi-retired pharmacist in Osage Beach, Mo., also came into some money unexpectedly. Unfortunately, he had to give it back. Adams ordered 3,000 ounces of silver from a broker at PaineWebber and got more than $900,000 worth of gold coins in the mail instead. Under police protection, he returned the 2,100 American Eagle coins to PaineWebber in an exchange that lasted four hours. The company discovered its error after it had already sent the 2,100 ounces of gold and was searching for another 900 ounces to send. Broker Fred Loring called Adams and asked him to return the gold. He agreed, although, he said: “They still hadn’t sent me my silver.” The firm said his order of silver, worth $20,640 at last report, was “in the mail.”

--Civil rights figure Julian Bond filed for divorce from his wife, Alice, who last year sparked an investigation by claiming that he and other prominent Atlanta residents were cocaine abusers. Bond, 48, said in a four-page court document that his 27-year marriage was broken and that he had been separated from his wife since September, 1986. He asked for an equal division of property. A grand jury had investigated after Alice Bond, 44, told police he was abusing cocaine last year, but she retracted her accusation.