Lotto Winner Hits Jackpot on New Boyfriends

When the 20-year-old winner of $19.58 million in California’s lottery was introduced to reporters at a Los Angeles press conference Friday, the first question Christene E. Lentz heard was, “So, you got a boyfriend?”

Lentz laughed and shot back, “I probably have a lot of boyfriends right now after winning all this money!” She has also received phone calls from friends she “had not heard from in years,” and five marriage proposals, after the news broke that she and a Riverside man, Robert K. Barnett, will evenly share California’s second largest lottery prize ever. Each won $19.58 million, to be delivered in 20 annual payments.

To escape the callers, Lentz, her mother and stepfather spent Thursday afternoon “looking at new BMWs.” Christene, who lives in Capistrano Beach and attends Saddleback Community College, has held two jobs since starting school, and until the winning numbers were announced Wednesday night she feared that she might not be able to meet her monthly $200 payments on her old car. “I’m not still worried about that,” she said.

Barnett, a 52-year-old truck driver, hit the jackpot six months before his 30th year of working at the Alumax aluminum plant in Riverside. He said he has no immediate plans to retire. Coincidentally, Lentz’s father, Terry, also works at the plant. The two men have known each other for 20 years, Barnett said.

Will Buy New Car

Like Lentz, Barnett plans to buy a new car. Other than that purchase, some home repairs and a European vacation, he said he has “no definite plans” for the prize money. The first installment--a check for $783,200--should be waiting for him at the Riverside district office of the lottery within a month, according to lottery officials.

Calling himself a “homebody” who has lived among relatives in Riverside since 1947, Barnett said he hopes his good fortune does not “pull apart” his family.

“I hope it doesn’t change my children,” he said. “I have a very good family and a close family. . . . I plan on taking care of my family. In what respect, I don’t know yet. Hopefully I can set them up for life, for a couple of generations.”

Barnett, whose wife, Wanda, said she suffers from fibrositis, which she described as a form of rheumatism, said he may donate some of his earnings to the Arthritis Foundation.

Lentz said she will probably take a heavier course load next semester at Saddleback, where she is a sophomore majoring in theater arts. She plans to continue her education “probably for the next five or six years.” In addition, she said she hopes to buy a house for her grandmother and spend a few months traveling around the United States.

Wants to Teach

After graduating “hopefully I will be teaching,” she said. “I don’t want to just sit home. I like sleeping in, but I don’t want to just stay in. . . . I’m an active person. The money will just enhance everything, I hope.”

On Thursday, Lentz said, she “gave three months’ notice” to her employer--who also happens to be her mother, Joyce, the owner of an aerospace-materials supply company in Orange, where Christene was a customer relations clerk.

But some things will not change for the winners. Lentz said she will keep buying Lotto tickets, as she has done since turning 18, the minimum legal age. Barnett said he will continue to take his accustomed seat at his friends’ card games.

“Once a gambler, always a gambler,” Barnett said.