Winning Super Lotto Jackpot Is Small Comfort for Widower

Dennis Pinto had played the same lottery numbers twice a week for eight years. But when the clerks at Rancho Market announced that he had won the $3-million Super Lotto jackpot, he felt only numbness and exhaustion.

Pinto, 32, had lost his wife, Theresa, 31, to ovarian cancer earlier that day.

“I didn’t really say a whole lot,” he said in an interview. “I just looked at them and said, ‘I hope you’re not joking around.’ ”

Since that fateful day--Nov. 27--Pinto has been a jumble of emotions. He has buried his wife, taken a few calls from friends and returned to his job as a technician for McDonnell Douglas in Long Beach, where he plans to continue working.

“Emotionally, it’s a roller coaster ride,” he said.

The Pintos met in 1989 and were married in 1993. Over the last year, Dennis adopted Theresa’s son, Blake. The 7-year-old has been staying with his aunt but Pinto said he plans to soon bring Blake home to their two-bedroom apartment in Costa Mesa.

“There’s me and two cats over here,” said Pinto, who loved riding motorcycles and going trout fishing with his wife. “I find myself kind of hanging out here with not a whole lot to do.”

For now, his memories keep him company. He talks of the way his wife loved to live life “in the fast lane,” riding her Harley-Davidson and attracting new friends.

Pinto was staying overnight in his wife’s room at Irvine Medical Center and was with her when she died at 3 a.m. He was carrying a small shopping bag that contained his toiletries and the lottery ticket.

That evening, he stopped by the Rancho Market on Newport Boulevard, as he has every Saturday and Wednesday for about five years. He had not slept for 30 hours.

As the teller put Pinto’s ticket into the computer to see if he had won anything, the teller said, “I don’t know what’s wrong with the ticket,” Pinto said. “Another teller came over,” and his fortune was confirmed.

They asked him why he wasn’t excited. He told them about Theresa.

“He was quite broken up about it,” said Katherine Chew, who owns the store with her ex-husband, Robert.

Pinto will receive the money in $108,000 installments annually, after taxes, for 20 years. His goal is to make sound investments and “keep it rolling.”

The insurance company will pay the “astronomical” medical bills incurred during his wife’s illness, Pinto said. Still, things have been tight financially because his wife had been unable to work.

“I’m just kind of falling back into the routine,” he said. “I’ve kind of gone out and had a few beers with some friends, but it’s not like I’ve really been celebrating yet.”