Little Spin to Sacramento Ends Up in $30,000 Payoff

Hairdresser Shelly Serrecchio went on a four-day vacation to Sacramento with four friends and is coming back $30,000 richer.

The Laguna Niguel resident was one of seven lottery players to win in Saturday’s Big Spin, which doled out $1.23 million in prizes, lottery spokesman John Schade said.

“I feel great!” said Serrecchio, 30, minutes after she spun the wheel and watched the ball drop into the $30,000 slot. As she stood nervously in the glare of the TV studio lights, she “really wasn’t aware what was happening,” she said afterward.

Serrecchio, who had anxiously awaited her turn at the wheel since she arrived Thursday in Sacramento, said her new-found money will not burn a hole in her pocket.

Instead of going on a shopping spree or taking a long vacation, Serrecchio said, she will return to work this week as scheduled and invest the cash.

Saturday’s windfall marked the first time that the avid lottery player has won.

Her winning $1 scratch-off ticket was purchased at a Hughes Market near Jeffrey’s Hair Salon in Dana Point, where she works.

Don Erbin, 70, a retired Nevada man who bought a lottery ticket on a weekly trip to the Mono County town of Walker, was the big winner of the day, hitting a $1-million jackpot.

Other winners were: Carol Scalise of Fremont, $50,000; Maria Blanco of Hawthorne, Vernon Van Duyn of Oakland and Maria Berdue of Reno, $40,000 each, and David Nagatani of Hanford, $30,000.

Serrecchio was the fourth Laguna Niguel resident to try the Big Spin since the game began, said lottery spokesman Schade, who added that she will receive her winnings within a week.

Despite her frugal attitude about her good fortune, Serrecchio said that she is allowing herself one extravagance: a Saturday night on the town with her girlfriends, who came up to cheer her on.

“We’re going to party tonight,” Serrecchio said.