No Small Change, Please : Ex-Waiter, Daughter Win $8.78-Million Lotto Jackpot

Hugo Parenzan, a retiree who spent nine years waiting on tables at Glendale’s posh Oakmont Country Club, struck it rich last weekend after investing $10 in the state’s Super Lotto.

Parenzan, who lives with his wife, Molly, in a one-bedroom apartment in Montrose, will share an $8.78-million jackpot with his daughter, Deborah Sherrod, 32, of Palmdale, lottery officials said. After federal taxes are deducted, the three will divide $351,200 annually for the next 20 years.

La Crescenta Liquors, the store that sold Saturday’s winning ticket, will receive a one-time prize of $43,900.

“I don’t believe it yet,” Molly Parenzan, 62, said during a news conference Monday at the Lottery’s Van Nuys office. She said she hopes to use some of the jackpot to buy a house, possibly in Las Vegas.

Her husband was less certain about how the family will spend the winnings.

“I want to see the green,” Hugo Parenzan, 71, said with a laugh. “When I’ve got the money, we’ll talk about it.”

Pressed again about his plans for the money, the former waiter said he hopes to use it to “make everybody happy.”

The Parenzans were playing cards with friends Saturday night when they caught part of an announcement about that day’s drawing and realized they possessed at least two of the winning numbers. Then, on a late news program, they heard all six numbers and realized they had hit the jackpot.

The next morning they phoned their daughter, who buys Lotto tickets with them.

“I didn’t believe it,” said Sherrod, who works in the office of a Burbank auto repair shop. “So I got the paper and had him read his numbers to me.”

Sherrod said she wants to fulfill at least one long-cherished dream with the money.

“I want to go on a vacation,” Sherrod said. “I’ve never had a vacation. I’d like to go to Hawaii.”

Her husband, Pat, said he wants to reserve some of the winnings to buy a new Harley-Davidson motorcycle.

The Sherrods have three children--ages 12, 10 and 6--who are sure to benefit from the newfound wealth.

But Pat Sherrod quipped:

“They’re spoiled rotten already.”

In picking the winning numbers, Parenzan said he used significant family dates--including the days when his parents died and the day he left his native Italy.

Parenzan said he survived several dangerous combat experiences while serving in the Italian army during World War II. He relocated to the United States in 1948 and worked as a waiter in New York before coming to Southern California.

“I’m very, very lucky,” he said.