Spare Dollar Buys $16.7-Million Lottery Ticket

Ever since the California Lottery began in 1985, Milton Pedersen, 59, a car dealership service manager who lives in Garden Grove, has been playing two sets of numbers each week.

They’re not bad numbers. “I’ve won $59 once and $89 another time playing with those numbers, and I was tickled to death,” he said.

But last week, as he was pulling out two dollar bills to pay for his usual two lottery tickets, a third dollar also spilled out. “I didn’t even know I had that dollar, so I said, ‘Heck, make that a Quick Pick,’ ” Pedersen said.

That Quick Pick won $16.7 million on Saturday night.

“It’s great, but I’m going to continue working,” Pedersen said Tuesday as left the California Lottery office here.

Pedersen and his wife, Patricia, declined to be photographed. They reluctantly agreed to an interview. They just don’t want their lives to turn upside down, they explained. But there is no denying they are now among the very rich of Orange County.

Lottery officials said that after taxes, the Pedersens will get about $607,000 a year for the next 20 years.

“We honestly don’t know what we’ll do with it,” Milton Pedersen said. “We haven’t made any plans.”

His wife interjected, “We don’t want our lives to change.”

A native of Arizona, Milton Pedersen has lived in Garden Grove since 1960.

He and his wife have two children, Wayne, 29, and Pam, 27, and two grandchildren. Wayne Pedersen accompanied his father and mother Tuesday afternoon to the lottery office at 840 N. Eckhoff St.

Milton Pedersen said he didn’t know until Monday afternoon that he had won Saturday night’s lottery drawing.

That drawing picked 4, 23, 27, 31, 42 and 47, matching his spur-of-the moment Quick Pick.

“My wife and I had been on a cruise down to Ensenada, so when we got back yesterday afternoon, I picked up the paper and started checking numbers,” Pedersen said.

“I had put money on a lot of other tickets we shared at work, but I decided first to check my own numbers.”

Pedersen said that as he started checking, excitement mounted number by number.

“I sat there stunned,” he said. “I went back checking the numbers, one by one, for four times. Then I hollered to my wife.”

Patricia Pedersen said that her reaction was, “ ‘No, this isn’t true.’ But then I got excited and jumped up and down and was screaming.”

Milton Pedersen said he reported for work, as usual, Tuesday morning at the Chevrolet dealership in Los Angeles where he works.

“But the only person I told about winning was my boss,” he said. “I told my boss that I needed to go to the lottery office.”

Pedersen added that he would be returning to work at the car dealership, despite his new wealth.

“We have no idea what we’re going to do,” Patricia Pedersen said. “We’ve tossed around a few ideas, but mainly we’ve just got to let this sink in. Things may change, but I don’t want to change who I am.”

Milton Pedersen purchased his winning ticket at Valencia Market on Garden Grove Boulevard in Garden Grove.

Lottery officials said the store will get about $82,000 as its bonus for selling the winning ticket.