A Beaten Path Leads to $19.8 Million : Lottery: An auto detailer visits a mall to buy new soles for his worn boots. And he steps onto Easy Street.

Lawrence Fiore’s lucky boots carried him to a fortune.

Fiore, who with his family operates Fiore Auto Detail and Window Tinting in Reseda and Westlake Village, bought a Lotto ticket Wednesday at The Oaks mall in Thousand Oaks.

“I needed new soles for my lucky boots,” Fiore, 38, explained Friday, pointing to his well-worn brown cowboy boots. “They said it would take a couple hours, so I decided to kill some time and buy a ticket.”

Feeling lucky, Fiore plunked down $5, the most he’s ever spent on a lottery gamble.

The winning numbers for Wednesday--5, 13, 24, 34, 42 and 45--were announced that night.

But it wasn’t until Thursday afternoon, while looking at a newspaper as he waited in the drive-through line at a fast-food restaurant, that he discovered he had hit the $19.8-million jackpot.

“I looked at the cashier, and he said, ‘That will be $5.32,’ ” Fiore said. “I said, ‘I don’t believe it. I just won the lottery.’ And he said, ‘Congratulations. That will be $5.32.’ Of course, I didn’t eat.”

“When I saw those winning numbers, it was the most unusual feeling,” Fiore said Friday, after pulling up in a white stretch limousine at the California Lottery’s Ventura District Office to claim his prize.

“I got a little weak.”

Fiore, who is single, lives in Oak Park near Agoura Hills and has a 15-year-old daughter in Simi Valley. He will receive his first check for $736,560 within six weeks, said lottery District Manager Stephen Freund. After that, he’ll get annual checks in the same amount for 20 years.

“My first plans are to take care of my family,” Fiore said. He said he will use part of the money to allow his parents to retire from the family’s auto detailing business.

What will Fiore’s fortune buy them? “Whatever they want,” Fiore said. “But all their lives they worked hard for everything they got, so it’s going to be hard to get them to take something they didn’t work for.”

Fiore’s older brother, Louis, an accountant, will help him manage his new wealth. “I’m the second-luckiest man alive,” Louis Fiore said. Lawrence Fiore will also provide for his younger brother, Charles; his sister, Angela, and of course, his daughter.

“My daughter’s dream is a ’66 red Mustang,” Fiore said. “But first, we have to deal with the driver’s license.”

As for himself, Fiore said he has no plans for extravagant purchases. He has stopped working but eventually will be “looking into new options” for employment.

“Right now, I just want to relax and think about things,” he said.

“I’m pretty wiped out,” he said as he headed back to the limousine where his family sat waiting to continue celebrating the new millionaire’s winnings. A big party was planned for Friday night. But soon the festivities will be over, and Fiore said he expects his life to return to normal. “I’m not planning anything drastic,” he said.

The biggest change in his daily routine? “I’m not going to buy any more lottery tickets,” he said. “I fulfilled the goal, and I’m satisfied. Why want more?”