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A 7-Eleven store clerk, M. Faroqui, celebrated with customers on Jan. 13 after learning the store sold a winning Powerball ticket in Chino Hills, Calif. The California lottery said today a couple, Marvin and Mae Acosta, have claimed a $528.8 million share of a record record $1.6 billion Powerball jackpot in January. (Will Lester/The Sun via AP, File)
SACRAMENTO, Calif. » A California couple has claimed a $528.8 million share of a record Powerball jackpot from January and pledged to give much of it to charity.
Flanked by security, Marvin and Mae Acosta went to a state lottery office in Van Nuys on Friday to claim their winnings from the record $1.6 billion Powerball drawing, lottery officials disclosed today.
In a statement, the Acostas said they are dedicating nearly all of the prize money to a trust and charities.
“We are thankful and blessed for the rare gift that has been placed in our care,” the statement said.
Traverso described the Acostas as a younger couple with two children. No additional details were released because they requested privacy.
The couple will take their winnings in a cash option totaling $327.8 million before federal taxes, lottery officials said.
The Acostas bought their ticket six months ago at a 7-Eleven in Chino Hills, California, about 35 miles east of Los Angeles. It was one of three winning tickets sold for the Jan. 13 drawing. Winners in Florida and Tennessee came forward within days to claim their prize money.
Word that one of the winning tickets was sold in California brought excited crowds to the 7-Eleven in Chino Hills, a normally quiet community of 77,000 people nestled among rolling hills.
Gawkers crowded the store and parking lot, mugging for TV cameras. Some chanted “Chino Hills! Chino Hills!” in celebration of the city’s sudden celebrity.
The Tennessee winners were a small-town couple, John and Lisa Robinson of Munford, who also took the lump sum payment. They said they didn’t intend to stop working — John as a warehouse supervisor and Lisa at a dermatologist’s office — and would stay in their one-story house. They planned to pay off their mortgage and their daughter’s student loans.
The Florida winners, David Kaltschmidt and Maureen Smith of Melbourne Beach, took the lump sum as well. Kaltschmidt said he would retire from his job as a manufacturing engineer but wouldn’t otherwise change his day-to-day life.
Smith, who identified herself as a homemaker, said she was concerned that winning might make her less friendly because of all the worrying.
Last sentence is so funny. You right on, baby. Donate everything and move to Hawaii where the weather is so much better and nobody cares how much money you make.
You are kidding, right? That last lady, Smith, lives in Melbourne Beach, Florida so her weather is just as good as in Hawaii. Oh, and people in Hawaii, based on comments on SA, do not like rich mainlanders coming to Hawaii and buying property.
Rich Chinese are hated even more even though they make up a much smaller percentage of out of state buyers compared to mainlanders or Japanese or Canadians. But who gets the most hate? China.
That’s because MOST people from China are rude and sometimes even disrespectful. Have you ever been to China or Hong Kong ? It’s their culture and environment, and a communist government too.
@Happy, been there? I’ve LIVED there. Of course I know what the people are like there but I’ve seen non-Chinese in China act even worse on a regular basis. The “China threat” is way overblown, and so is the supposedly “disrespectful behavior” you talk about, at least when compared to other buyers. I couldn’t care less about the communist government, it doesn’t reflect on the people any more than the US government reflects on the American people. Actually probably even less since their leaders aren’t elected like ours.
“Nobody cares how much money you make”? Is that a joke? Hawaii isn’t an isolated Amazon rainforest tribe. Trust me, a lot of people care how much money you make and how much money you have. If they move here there will still be a lot of people after their money.
Wishing you all Peace and Happiness, may your friends treat you the same before your windfalls and may your security for privacy be honored from the “wild bunch of strangers” that will surely come your way!
When is Hawaii going to become part of mainstream America and join in the lotteries? Hawaii people are SLOW but, come on, we can’t be that slow.
Yes the Nei can be that slow.
Yet the people complain about “How come the state cannot fix this, or cannot fix that. How come the state raising taxes for this?” NO MORE $$$, that’s why.
My sentiments exactly. Unfortunately, change comes sooooooooo slooooowly here in the Nei.
To think living in California, was eligible, yet did not purchase any? Wow, missed my chance!
If you won, you could buy that Kaiser estate from the Chans. Hahaha!
Congrat’s to the winners!
Hope they’re all American CITIZENS.
Nothing worse than illegals taking the winnings back to their countries.
Spend the money and pay taxes here !!!
Or permanent residents. I don’t even know if illegals can collect on the winnings.
they sure can but there may be special taxes that they have to pay.
Hawaii cannot be like the mainland, because the politicians do not want Hawaii People to benefit, that why we struggle year after year, month after month, day after day, this is a losing state sorry to say.
If we here in Hawaii want the lottery we should be able to put it on a Ballot come election time and let the people say Yes or No to a lottery. Why do we have to leave it up to slimy politician’s.
agreed! let us all decide ourselves not the self-serving politicians who think they know better.