LAGUNA BEACH : Big Lotto Winner Picks Up First Check

Standing near a long banner that declared his “big win,” a Laguna Beach service station manager received his first installment from California Lottery officials Wednesday at the Circle K market where he bought the winning Lotto ticket on Oct. 25.

The $64,000 check was the first of 20 annual payments that Edward Schwartz, 42, a 20-year Laguna resident, will receive toward his $1,567,250 win.

“At first you don’t believe it,” Schwartz said. “It took a while to set in . . . You don’t know what to think.”

He said he got up that October morning at 4 a.m. and went to a Chevron service station that he manages and checked his numbers in the newspaper. Once he realized that he had won, Schwartz telephoned the Lottery recording to double check.

“He called me at a quarter to 6 and I could tell by his voice that he was probably serious,” said Marlene Locke, Schwartz’s longtime girlfriend. “I could hear his heart beating through the phone . . . I wanted to scream, I was euphoric.”

Ever since the California Lotto games began more than two years ago, Schwartz said, he has spent about $50 a week on lottery tickets. Every Wednesday and Saturday he buys four $5 cards, fills them in with birthday and anniversary numbers and also buys a $5 “quick pick” card, letting the computer pick the numbers. Like any devout Lotto player, he keeps his numbers top secret, but it was a random quick pick that made him his fortune, he said.

“I was really thrilled for him,” said Locke, an account executive for Orange County Magazine. Locke and Schwartz have lived in their house on a ridge above Laguna for 17 years. Schwartz is hard- working and deserves the money, she said. “Really, his only vice is the Lotto. It was his thing . . . I call him the Laguna Lotto Guru. Everybody’s calling and asking what the magic (system) is.”

Shortly after Schwartz was handed his check a man walked by with a handful of Lotto tickets. “Do me a favor and bless these,” the man said to Schwartz.

Schwartz said he and Locke don’t have any big plans for the money. “We’ll probably buy a new couch and some new blinds for the house, nothing extravagant.” However, Locke said they have had plans to remodel their house for some time and now they can do it all at once, instead of bit by bit.

Neither Schwartz nor Locke are planning to quit their jobs right away, but Schwartz said he might retire in three or four years.

“I like my job and I like the people in Laguna.” Schwartz said.

Ali Amin, manager of the Circle K where Schwartz buys his tickets, said the store’s Lotto business has about doubled since the big win. “Everyone asks, ‘Who’s the big winner?’ ” he said. “They all want to know if it was a local person.”

Amin said Schwartz had only $15 on the day he bought the winning ticket and asked Amin to pick up the other $10 so he could play all of his numbers. But none of the tickets Amin bought were winners.

Locke said she never plays the Lottery, Enbut she might start. “I’m thinking about it,” she said. “Then we can be a two-Lotto-winning family.”

Although Schwartz said he wouldn’t necessarily recommend that people play Lotto, he did note, “If you don’t play, you can’t win.”