Flustered Winner Claims Big Prize

After a week of nervousness, the final winner in last week’s $193-million state lottery on Monday took her single QuickPick ticket out of the prayer book where it had been hidden and claimed her prize.

Welma Naguit, a single mother from Montebello who had asked friends to buy a $1 lottery ticket for her, said she was too afraid to leave her house after learning she was one of three winners who had split the jackpot.

Lottery officials convinced her Monday to appear--albeit briefly--at a 7-Eleven convenience store in Orange where they were presenting a check to the shop owner who sold one of the winning tickets to a Tustin Ranch couple.

“I cannot sleep,” said Naguit, who hid in a restroom of the convenience store after her brief appearance.

Naguit said she plans to buy a house, help relatives and donate a portion of her winnings to the World Trade Center relief effort.

“When I’m in the Philippines, we have a dream,” said Naguit, a resident alien who came to the United States a year ago. “When I came in the United States, I wanted to buy a house--and just like that....”

Naguit was returning from the Philippines when she heard about the size of the lottery jackpot. She had asked friends to buy a $1 ticket for her at a 7-Eleven near her home.

She credited her religious faith for her fortunes and said she hid the winning ticket in a prayer book as she wrestled with nerves and insomnia.

“She asked me, ‘What were the other winners like?’” said Joan Wilson, chief executive officer of the California Lottery Commission. “It just shows that winners come from all walks of life. I don’t think she believes she’s won yet.”

Naguit, who elected to take her winnings in a single payout, will get $33 million before taxes. Tustin residents Paul Briscoe, 49, and his wife Rose, 45, and a Half Moon Bay man, Andy Kampe, are the other winners.

Naguit, described as being in her 40s, worked as a launderer and has a son, lottery officials said. They said she is going through a divorce.

“She’s very, very nervous having won this amount of money,” said Margie Bennett, owner of the Montebello 7-Eleven where Naguit’s ticket was purchased. Bennett, who will get roughly $321,000 for selling the ticket, said Naguit is a regular customer.

State lottery officials arranged to meet Naguit near her home and then drove her to the Orange convenience store while relatives followed.

“Her hands were sweaty wet,” said Wilson, who accompanied Naguit. “I’ve never felt anything like that before.”

The jackpot was the largest single-state prize ever won.