Winners of $33-Million Jackpot Ready to Blaze Some New Trails
It has become a cliche. Right after carrying off the pot of gold at the end of the state Lotto rainbow, the new multimillionaires announce that they will hang on to their humdrum jobs, maybe re-tile the bathroom and buy mom a swell present, but other than that remain the same old plain-living folks they always were.
None of that for James and Roberta Stevens of Newbury Park.
Living out the fantasies of millions of Lotto players statewide, the Stevenses--whose $33.7-million jackpot is the third biggest one-player win in Lotto history--picked up a new Lincoln lickety-split. Then they marched into work at Litton Industries in Woodland Hills on Tuesday and interrupted a senior management meeting to tell their bosses: Hasta la vista, baby.
And apparently to avoid tipping off any “long-lost relatives” or make new friends with worthy causes to support, they then clammed up and refused to hold a news conference.
“After winning such a large amount of money some people want a certain degree of privacy,” explained lottery spokesman Bob Taylor.
In a statement distributed by the lottery, James Stevens, 51, who until Tuesday morning was a data processing manager at Litton, said: “This is the greatest day of my life.”
The Stevenses will receive $1.68 million a year before taxes for 20 years. With withholding by the lottery administration of 28%, their check will be $1,213,200, and they will still owe the remainder of a probable federal tax rate of 39%. Lottery winnings are exempt from state income taxes. Their first check is expected in about three weeks.
According to Taylor, James Stevens usually played five sets of favorite numbers in each of the twice-weekly Super Lotto drawings. On Saturday, during a visit with their daughter and son-in-law in Palmdale, he bought an additional $10 of tickets, this time allowing the Lotto computer to pick the numbers at random.
While visiting friends in Riverside on Sunday, Stevens checked the winning numbers in the newspaper and realized that he was holding the winning combination: 3, 4, 10, 30, 33 and 40.
“I fell on the floor,” Stevens said in the statement that lottery officials distributed.
“We were yelling and screaming,” said Roberta Stevens, 57, who until Tuesday was an accounting manager at Litton.
When they got back to their home in Newbury Park, they placed the winning ticket in the refrigerator. “I figured that if the house burned down that would be the safest place,” James Stevens said.
By nightfall Monday, they had acquired a new Lincoln, James Stevens said, and they are looking for a bigger motor home than their current 27-footer, because now that they don’t have to work they plan to do a lot of traveling with their winnings.
“We’re going to enjoy life and help our children,” he said. Together they have five children from previous marriages.
The winning ticket was purchased at the Desert View Superette in Palmdale. Store owner Sam Hawara will receive a 0.5% bonus for selling the winning ticket, $168,500 before taxes.
“I feel great,” Hawara said in an interview Tuesday. “I had never sold a winning jackpot ticket, but I was waiting.”
The Stevenses are the largest single winners in Ventura County, Taylor said. The previous high was a $17.1-million jackpot in February, 1990. Among single winners statewide, the Stevenses place third behind a $51.6-million jackpot in June, 1994, and a $43.3-million prize in December, 1990.