Lotto Winner Isn’t Talking--Oh Well, Maybe a Word or Two

Yes, Orange County has a new Lotto millionaire. She’s Lenore Bentson, a Seal Beach grandmother.

And, yes, there’s a reason why she did not come forward until Wednesday to claim the $6.7-million prize she won in Saturday’s state lottery drawing.

“I didn’t even find out I won until Monday night,” Bentson said. “And I didn’t claim it Tuesday because I had some molars pulled that day.”

Bentson is a vivacious, mid-40ish-looking woman with a dry sense of humor--and an aversion to publicity. She explicitly told state lottery officials she wanted no news coverage or interviews.

And when a reporter showed up at the Bentsons’ home on Elder Avenue in the upper-middle-class College Park section of northeast Seal Beach on Wednesday afternoon, Lenore Bentson was not amused.

“I’m not talking to you or anyone else,” she yelled from an upstairs balcony. When the reporter told her his editor had ordered him not to come back without an interview, Bentson broke into a smile, then put on a stage frown again. “That’s what they all say,” she said.

Nonetheless, Bentson gave a brief interview as she stood on the balcony.

“Of course I’m happy I won,” she said. “But listen to the phone. Do you hear it ringing in there? I’m going to have to take the phone out.”

She gave her stage frown again and said that there are some problems, such as too many phone calls, that can come from hitting the Lotto jackpot. “I wonder how I got in a situation like this,” she mused. “I just stopped in the Jiffy Stop Market and bought a ticket, and now all this happens.”

Bentson said she had some favorite numbers she picked: 5, 12, 16, 17, 26 and 29. The numbers are birth dates of her three children and her grandchild, with a son’s wedding date and an in-law’s birthday thrown in for good measure.

Those six numbers were the ones drawn Saturday night. Only two persons in the state had tickets with all six numbers: Bentson, who purchased her ticket at the Jiffy Stop Market, 5871 Lampson Ave. in Garden Grove, and someone who purchased a ticket in Lancaster. State lottery spokesman John Schade said the Lancaster winner still had not come forward as of late Wednesday afternoon.

Schade said Bentson and the Lancaster winner each will get $6,760,000. Schade said that the gross annual amount, to be paid over the next 20 years, is $338,000. He said the net amount--after federal tax is withheld--will be $270,400 each year for the next 20 years.

Bentson, in the brief interview, did not discuss family finances. But her attractive, cathedral-ceiling, two-story home is in a neighborhood where “homes start at $350,000 and sell for up to $600,000,” said an agent for a real estate company that does business in the area.

Bentson said during the interview that it was not shyness that kept her from claiming her prize until Wednesday morning.

“It wasn’t until my husband and I were at supper Monday night that I found out I won,” she said. “He was reading the paper, and he read aloud the winning numbers from Saturday night. I said, ‘Those numbers seem very familiar.’ Well, of course, they were familiar! I certainly know the family birth dates.

“But I ran upstairs and got my ticket, and there they were: the same six numbers.”

With pain from recently removed molars and aggravation from an ever-ringing telephone, Bentson said she hasn’t had time to figure out what she and her husband will do with the cash windfall.

“Maybe we’ll go on a trip around the world,” she said. “We haven’t been anywhere in 100 years.” Then she put on her stage frown again and glared down from her balcony at the reporter.

“Now, have I given you enough? Will you leave me alone?” And with that, the new millionaire started back into her house to answer the incessant telephones. “I don’t know how people found out about this,” she muttered, just before leaving. “I haven’t told anyone, not even my neighbors.”