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2011-04-01 07:30:58
By MARY ESCH, Associated Press Mary Esch, Associated Press Thu Mar 31, 3:54
pm ET
SCHENECTADY, N.Y. An early morning phone call on a Saturday usually means one
thing for the IT workers at the New York state Division of Housing and
Community Renewal.
"I said, 'Great, the server's down,'" said John Kutey, 54, of Green Island.
Nope. Instead, he and six colleagues had hit the jackpot: $319 million in the
multistate Mega Millions game's fifth-largest prize in its history.
"It still seems unreal to us," Kutey said Thursday at a news conference at
state lottery headquarters in Schenectady. "We're pretty average folks. This
really hasn't sunk in for anybody."
Each of the seven winners will collect a check for $19.1 million, after taxes.
Some of their colleagues might be kicking themselves. Co-winner John Hilton,
57, of North Greenbush, said there are about a dozen workers in the information
technology department who start playing the lottery at $2 per person when the
jackpot hits $100 million.
"We keep a checklist of who's in and who's out for any particular drawing," he
said. This time, five names were crossed off the list when they declined to
play.
A hankering for a Snickers bar and an impatient patron may have provided just
the extra bit of luck needed by those who opted in.
Mike Barth, 63, of Bethlehem, said his colleagues designated him to go to the
newsstand next door and buy the ticket. Another lottery customer cut in front
of him in line when he reached for his favorite candy bar.
The Snickers bar became a payday instead.
"I'm thinking later on, when we found out we won, that this guy who jumped in
front of me could have been the one with the winning ticket," Barth said. "It
just goes to show you never know."
On Friday night, Barth's co-worker Gabrielle Mahar, 29, of Colonie, learned
that she and her fellow IT workers at the state Division of Housing and
Community Renewal had hit the jackpot when she saw the winning numbers scroll
across her TV screen during the late-night news.
"I looked at my photocopy of the ticket, then rechecked it and rechecked it and
rechecked it," she said. "I just couldn't believe it was real."
After calling her mother and her best friend, Mahar called her boss, Kristin
Baldwin of Clifton Park, and left a message on her answering machine saying
they had won.
Baldwin, 42, said she got up and listened to her answering machine around
midnight. "I was numb. In total disbelief," Baldwin said. "I'm really not
prepared for it. It's a wonderful thing, but it's so much to sort out and deal
with."
Several of the winners thought it was going to be bad news from work when the
phone rang Saturday morning.
Tracy Sussman, 41, of Colonie, said she took the good news call after initially
thinking, "What's wrong now?"
"When Gabrielle called me at 6:45, I was still in bed," said Leon Peck, 62, of
Johnstown in Fulton County. "I said, 'What's the problem?' She said, 'We hit
the Mega.' I thought I was still dreaming."
Kutey went to the office to retrieve the ticket from Barth's desk.
"I didn't know where to put it," he said. "I had a bucket of rock salt and a
5-gallon bucket of bird food in the garage. I thought the rock salt, it might
eat the ink off the ticket. So I put the ticket in the bird food and hid it in
the basement."
The winners said they haven't decided whether to quit working or exactly how to
use their new-found wealth.
"I really don't know what I'll do," Baldwin said. "It hasn't even been a week
yet. It hasn't really hit me."
"I just want a dishwasher," Mahar said.