Lucky Jerseys Make Winners of Lottery Pool

Sure, I’ll do overtime today, Rick Sanders told his boss Wednesday. I need the money.

On Thursday, the Long Beach Gas and Electric Department employee laughed gleefully at that thought as he clutched a check for $22 million from the California Lottery. No more overtime for him.

After chipping in $5 each for lottery tickets, Sanders and eight of his co-workers won the jackpot, netting them each a total of $1.76 million after taxes spread over the next 26 years.

“Wow, this is just great,” said Sanders, as the jubilant men donned California Lottery caps and celebrated at a news conference. “Little did I know . . . .Wow. Wow.”

The men, who work together in the gas department’s meter shop, have been buying tickets together for almost four years, each time playing the same numbers--six old baseball and football jersey numbers belonging to one of them.

Rick Shoemaker, a gas instrument technician, realized the group had won when he checked the numbers on the Internet about 11 p.m. Wednesday.

“I couldn’t believe it,” he said. “I had every reaction they show on the ads--you can’t speak, you can’t think. I made my family come in and double check the numbers.”

Shoemaker began calling his co-workers, and at 1 a.m. they gathered for an early morning breakfast celebration at a cafe in Long Beach’s Belmont Shore. The men, who range in age from 33 to 64, stayed there until almost 3 a.m., laughing and talking.

All the winners, except one man who is retired, said they plan to keep working at the gas department, where most of them make about $40,000 a year.

“We could retire, but we like our jobs and we have a good team,” Sanders said.

The excited men said they planned to buy cars, fix up their homes and pay for their children’s college educations.

“We all have kids and we want them to go to college, so it takes a great burden off of us,” said Keith Snow.

Sanders, who studies business in the evenings, said his classes seem especially relevant after winning.

“Right now,” he said, “I’m studying accounting.”