Van Nuys Man Claims Share of Lotto Prize

A general contractor from Van Nuys whose family has won a dozen lottery prizes in the last 16 years hit the big time Monday when he collected $14.9 million.

Moshe Bar and his wife, Zvia, collected their share of the SuperLotto Plus $88-million jackpot.

Before now, Bar and his wife had won about $27,000 in the lottery. He believes he can keep his winning streak alive and he plans to keep playing.

When asked what he planned to do with the money, Bar said, “Education for my children . . . help the family. And I got big family.”

The big draw was last Wednesday, but it often takes at least a few days for the winners to come forward. Bar claimed the prize for having one of three winning tickets for last week’s SuperLotto Plus jackpot. Bar and two other winners shared the jackpot.

All of the winners opted for the cash value of the prize. By receiving the money upfront rather than spreading it out over 26 annual payments, Bar took home about half of his share of the $88-million jackpot.

Split three ways, each winning ticket is worth almost $15 million before taxes.

Bar bought his ticket at J Market, 8523 W. 3rd St. in Los Angeles, near where he happened to be working that week. He and his family were publicity-shy and waited several days to come forward.

“His wife’s birthday is today, which made it very nice,” said Ulysses Carter, manager of the Lottery’s Van Nuys office.

All three winning SuperLotto Plus tickets were sold in the Los Angeles area. Last Thursday, a group of nine co-workers, represented by Fabiola Galvin and Jack Lee, stopped by the Santa Fe Springs district office to claim one-third of the jackpot. On Friday, six siblings calling themselves the “Asian Brady Bunch”--Tim, Sam, Tom, Molly, Lauren and Tiffany Kamtan--redeemed their ticket.