OXNARD : $25,000 Win Takes 2nd Place to Birth

An Oxnard man who won $25,000 in the Big Spin on Saturday said that his real prize this week was the granddaughter who was born on Christmas Day.

Charles Montano, 49, who works as a meat cutter at a Vons supermarket in Ventura, won the prize with a ticket he bought seven or eight weeks ago at an Oxnard convenience mart, he said.

“It came just right for Christmas,” Montano said, adding that he expects to receive the money next month.

He said that he buys two lottery tickets a week but that this is his first win.

“I’m just looking for the pot of gold,” he said.

Montano said he plans to use the money to remodel his home and to give financial help to his two adult children, who also live in Oxnard.

Montano learned Monday that his ticket had been chosen for Saturday’s Big Spin, in which contestants can win up to $2 million.

But he said that his biggest excitement this week came from the birth of his fifth grandchild on Christmas Day.

“That’s the main thing,” he said of the child who was born 10 days past her due date.