Dear Boss: We Won. Bye : Insurance Firm Loses Entire Department When 4 Lotto Millionaires Quit

Four co-workers at an Irvine insurance company fulfilled just about every employee’s fantasy Thursday: They promptly quit their jobs after winning a share of the $20-million lottery jackpot.

The women’s investment in a winning SuperLotto ticket (which came to $3.25 each for 13 quick picks) catapulted them from “unimportant, unlucky” claims processors at Fidelity National Title Insurance Co. to millionaires, they said at a news conference at a California Lottery district office.

The four friends will be sharing $6.8 million of Wednesday’s $20-million jackpot. That means they each will receive $85,250 a year, before taxes, over the next 20 years.

Two other winning tickets have not been turned in yet, lottery officials said.

The departure of the four Fidelity workers means the 150-employee Irvine branch will lose an entire department. Their boss, however, remained sanguine about the turn of events.

“They were the claims payment processing department,” said Frank P. Willey, executive vice president of Fidelity. “We’ll hire new people unless they end up reconsidering. Maybe their euphoria will temper a little. It’ll be business as usual.”

But there were no signs of waning excitement as the four women checked off a list of “to do’s” with their first check.

Although they declined to say how much they made at Fidelity, they said it was “much less” than what they will be getting in lottery money each year. And there were no mentions of returning to work--except maybe to help train the new employees.

“I wish I had a picture of (Willey’s) face when we told him,” said Suzanne Seibold, 40, of Westminister.

Tina DiGeorge, 22, of Garden Grove had worked in the department for only a week when she adopted 13 as the group’s lucky number and urged co-worker Debra Larson to buy 13 quick pick tickets at a liquor store in Fountain Valley.

Seibold had to scrounge in her purse for enough money to pay for the lottery tickets, she said. Karla Bresette, 22, of Westminister also contributed.

Larson, 31, of Garden Grove said: “We just went nuts” when lottery officials verified their good fortune Wednesday at 8:08 p.m.

“We were yelling, crying, screaming. It was pandemonium,” Larson said breathlessly.