sws4420
04-20-2005, 08:02 AM
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SCHENECTADY -- For about 10 minutes, everything stopped, Richard Abatecola recalled Tuesday.
He had been taking a break from the assembly line at the IBM factory in Poughkeepsie to check the lottery numbers on the Internet: 1-16-17-20-40-43, with a bonus number of 39.
His ticket matched them all. The jackpot in that March 30 drawing was $19 million.
"I was checking it against the newspaper numbers, checked it a lot," he said. "I had someone else take the ticket and check himself just to make sure he was seeing what I was seeing."
On Tuesday, Abatecola received a check for $9,944,408, at a news conference outside the New York Lottery's offices in Schenectady. The 52-year-old Hudson resident became the Capital Region's first Lotto jackpot winner of 2005.
Abatecola bought his jackpot ticket at the Claverack Xtra Mart on the day of the drawing. The next day, after he confirmed that he indeed had the winning numbers, he asked a friend who worked as a part-time police officer to escort him to the lottery claim office in Fishkill.
His wife, Terez, thought it was a big joke at first.
"When he told me, I didn't believe him," she said. "And he just said, 'I'm not kidding. I'm really serious.' And he called and told me again, and I didn't believe him again. I really didn't believe him until he got the validation notice in Fishkill. I actually spoke to the woman there."
A soft-spoken man, Abatecola showed up at Tuesday's news conference wearing a gray v-necked shirt and black slacks, with his wife and lawyer by his side. He said he has been playing the lottery for about 25 years. The most he had ever won was $656.56.
Rather than 26 annual installments, which would add up to $19 million, Abatecola took a lump sum. Before taxes, the amount equals a little more than half the advertised jackpot.
He said he plans to stay with IBM for now but is starting to make plans. He has two daughters, ages 18 and 23, and plenty of student loans to pay off. He also wants to take Terez to Hungary, the country she left about 42 years ago when she was 7.
The couple badly needs a pair of new cars, too, preferably BMWs.
"There's 168,000 miles on my car, 148,000 on hers," he said.
http://timesunion.com/aspstories/story.asp?storyID=352822
SCHENECTADY -- For about 10 minutes, everything stopped, Richard Abatecola recalled Tuesday.
He had been taking a break from the assembly line at the IBM factory in Poughkeepsie to check the lottery numbers on the Internet: 1-16-17-20-40-43, with a bonus number of 39.
His ticket matched them all. The jackpot in that March 30 drawing was $19 million.
"I was checking it against the newspaper numbers, checked it a lot," he said. "I had someone else take the ticket and check himself just to make sure he was seeing what I was seeing."
On Tuesday, Abatecola received a check for $9,944,408, at a news conference outside the New York Lottery's offices in Schenectady. The 52-year-old Hudson resident became the Capital Region's first Lotto jackpot winner of 2005.
Abatecola bought his jackpot ticket at the Claverack Xtra Mart on the day of the drawing. The next day, after he confirmed that he indeed had the winning numbers, he asked a friend who worked as a part-time police officer to escort him to the lottery claim office in Fishkill.
His wife, Terez, thought it was a big joke at first.
"When he told me, I didn't believe him," she said. "And he just said, 'I'm not kidding. I'm really serious.' And he called and told me again, and I didn't believe him again. I really didn't believe him until he got the validation notice in Fishkill. I actually spoke to the woman there."
A soft-spoken man, Abatecola showed up at Tuesday's news conference wearing a gray v-necked shirt and black slacks, with his wife and lawyer by his side. He said he has been playing the lottery for about 25 years. The most he had ever won was $656.56.
Rather than 26 annual installments, which would add up to $19 million, Abatecola took a lump sum. Before taxes, the amount equals a little more than half the advertised jackpot.
He said he plans to stay with IBM for now but is starting to make plans. He has two daughters, ages 18 and 23, and plenty of student loans to pay off. He also wants to take Terez to Hungary, the country she left about 42 years ago when she was 7.
The couple badly needs a pair of new cars, too, preferably BMWs.
"There's 168,000 miles on my car, 148,000 on hers," he said.
http://timesunion.com/aspstories/story.asp?storyID=352822