$533 Million Jackpot Winner Revealed: Modest Mega Millionaire Richard Wahl

[Applause] okay um so the only thing I'm gonna ask is my family I want to test today that's awesome limits but everything else I'll talk about I am from Vernon Michigan I moved here at the end of July for a job opportunity a really great company to be well the story of how I won flu I'm using I don't pay me I don't play Mega Millions twice I played I played on Tuesday sitting with a guy from work even talking about retirement saying hey you know we win we can retire go stir all the wish list the stories all that stuff and he says you know I Drive past that sign every single day coming to work and I don't ever buy so on Monday I decide to stop and buy a ticket you know I looked on Tuesday I didn't win the next morning I look I didn't win my wife looked at me and said no why why bother you know God's fate he's gonna make his decision to his plan what's going to happen so on Thursday I stopped in to the gas station to get gas decided to go and I have $20 left in my pocket and your mama going buy some tickets actually have $20 and went bought a diet coke so got home Good Friday you know I'm checking the numbers at 8 o'clock you know me I've never played before lotteries for me is always 7:30 how do you know they draw at 11 o'clock so I'm checking eight o'clock go back do some stuff sit upstairs with my wife around midnight and when she tells me she's got sold to laundress and you know went upstairs check my numbers if I win you're gonna hear a huge scream we're leaving on vacation we're gonna retire so I go downstairs I look at my numbers you know I first thing I look for is though you know the mega numbers one the gold number I look for it and we find one of them down below read it across and said oh one there's no 11 I guess I'm not the winner so I go up a little higher so now here's an 11 uncle 11 and I see 28 and I mean I'm excited I montfort out I'm delighted right now you know I see the next number 31 yeah I'm like all right you know this is gonna be a good day for me I see the next number 46 and then I see 59 I'm like wow I want a million dollars remember I looked earlier for the one I didn't see it I'm like I want a million dollars I can't believe it I was excited you know life-changing money I went over look at that one I could tell you is ain't Sinkin it was it was truly amazing Boult so my family members for sleeping siding going three mile I walk upstairs I tell my wife I saw her said baby we get to go on vacation what are you talking about don't be an idiot like no seriously yeah we hit it you know we won the lottery so I showed her the numbers you know we looked down probably 15 times so now I'm sitting there thinking I'm like man I didn't play the Megaplier do I have to have that to win I don't know I've never really played the game I'm trying to Google I'm looking at everything you know so then I finally realize you know that I don't have to have that I'm like wow so then we're driving around on Saturday and when they announce there is one winner that was something else so for us we believe God has a plan so for us the plan is to do a lot of good things with it will we work with our financial team to make sure that things happen it's not only like changing money for me but I want to be life changing money for others family friends people in need so we're gonna try to do some good things with New Jersey or Michigan nobody I didn't leave the house all weekend you know I didn't get a chance to go to church and that was big for us to go to church on Sunday for us it was you know we were gonna go Easter egg hunting on Saturday morning deciding not to go Sunday didn't go to church you know I just I didn't feel comfortable taking the ticket out of the house I didn't feel comfortable leaving it in the house fire somebody come in and be crazy take it I don't know it's like I said life-changing you know we gave up our weekend and you know actually a lot of you guys probably seen me already the day they were handing out the $30,000 check I actually stopped in for gas I did see the news cameras so I told my wife you know we're not from the gerousia laughs no driver online I need no I needed told mine so I'm looking at my wallet I gave the guy that um pump my gas the last my money I'm like I got more money I got to get some money out of a atm so she's like no no it's for my limits for the girls they're gonna recognize you they're trying to figure out who it is you don't want to see you will be okay so I went in there and I went and I seen all the cameras on the hall man this is not good so I turned to the left I asked the clerk who actually was the one that sold it to me I asked I said where's the ATM and he gave me a double looked like he knew me I'm like okay this is not gonna be good they finally clean stood a chance behind I walked turn aartsen not to make cameras I'm out of here and I took off I came right here so somebody's were there probably so you would have you would have actually seen me in there new kids I will talk my family I'll say that it'll help a lot of my family and friends that maybe struggle every single day you know like every other American they're out there you know living check by check some of them fortunately for me I didn't have to live like that I actually had a really good job so there's some of my family that can't live like that so it's good for me to be able to get back to them especially like my mother she's a senior living on a reduced income so I'll be able to help her out and do some things for her and be able to help out my family humbly I keep use network humbling we're just humbled by the fact of everything that's happened you know some might say it's shock we're not the type that's gonna run off and spend all the money and had this great time and partied up that's not us we're humble humble family and you know we're gonna keep our roots help out as much as we can and do some good things within and leave it up to our financial advisors to help us where we need to go no actually the the weird thing is my mom actually called me before I wanted to tell her and told me I heard somebody in New Jersey one the library's what did you and I wasn't ready to share with her yet so I told her absolutely not mother owe me you know if it was me I'd be jumped jumping around for joy so no I told her after the pack after we turned the library ticket and we want to make sure everything was finalized and everything before I wouldn't start telling a lot of people we wanted to you know bring it in here even when I brought it in turn the ticket and you know there it's everyday to them I look at it so that went oh yeah yeah you want thank God I wasn't I still have the shirt I'm helping my job right now through the transition I won't be stay in there working I'm gonna take this time to spend time with my family I work a lot of hours I go into work early and leave and get home real late at night we used to live off north of Burma but I actually work in hillside they actually told me how to talk up in their name so I work at a a food service I basically I'm a production manager going through it I talked to my executives at my work because I wanted them to be aware I don't want them being surprised again for me it's more important now I was helping build a company there and it's more important for me to make sure they're taken care of I don't want to leave them short-handed and I don't want to just leave them in this pot and then family some friends some really close friends of ours new so that's whatever you think he'll stay in the air we haven't made a determination what we're gonna do yet so my dream is always I wanted to rebuild a 1963 Corvette whether I get the chance to do it or not I don't know but that's been my dream so we'll see if I live out that dream in a safe square proof safe to make sure you know I mean I I would have to say I checked that number at least 15 times throughout the weekend because I didn't believe it I thought maybe they're gonna magically just disappear change on me I am prepared to deal with it and no I'm not concerned I know how to say no not in a bad way you know just because somebody knew me ten years don't want to come up no our goal is to do a lot of charity work and do good things for people that need it just because I knew you or you were a tenth cousin down the line way back when doesn't mean that I'm gonna help them or I might we haven't completely decided we're gonna leave it up to our financial team to help us go through this but again it's more important for us to help help people as much as possible no we actually don't have a church here yet we were going more Catholic so we were going to the Catholic Church we have a joining we want to look here long enough to really sit down and focus on where I'm from before don't know what as soon as they see this press release and I'm sure they'll be reaching out to talk to me and stuff like that I won't disclose that I'm sorry guys this is all about my family safety first and foremost right now since July I think I moved here to like 28 they are easy that's why we believe it's God's plan he chose the numbers for us he's one who made the decision you know I was listening to a broadcast of some guys talking on the thing and the one guy said you know but everyone hits the button and tickets are sold like this and that guy went that one second leader would have went to somebody else so for us we we ultimately believe God made the decision that he's willing to put it in his hands and push the button and he's gonna make the decision for us to be able to do this and my wife's always talked about that she wants to help all as much as possible she's actually from Mexico so we're really sorry I get emotional we really want to help out some some of her people that she's known way back when her family that's still back in Mexico there's to me a lot of things that we want to do both here in the United States and abroad did you buy your wife a gift or anything like that to celebrate or um no my wife's more humbled like I am she doesn't want anything well I do something nice for of course she's my wife she's my queen I will make sure she takes care because I won't be standing up here first to foremost my family safety is more foreign tonight we didn't want my face to be out there that's why my wife's not here with me we don't want my wife's face out there you know we do have others we have to worry about so we just want to make sure that their safety is our first priority as you said people will be coming out of the woodwork we want to make sure that they don't bother the rest of my family we discuss a take a food service I am a production manager out there yes sir were you afraid to let go of that ticket you know like like handing it even to the person here you know it's in your hands oh no I couldn't can't this person here fast enough well anybody else yes I was not no one else is gonna get the ticket she is details about that either so that's a hard one because if they would have known who I was when I walked in there so your guys press conference for the $30,000 they would have mentioned it that no one knew who I was I'm not a regular at the store like the thing called for I do stop in there for guess it's one of the places I do go for gas I go there and then store that as Acme I've got to save that ten cents each time you know and then that's what the only times I ever stuff in there so I'm not a regular I just stopped in for gas and me to go in the store I think I've been in that store maybe four or five times since I moved here we cried a lot together as a family hugged a lot I don't know I don't see much as it is but no we didn't sleep that much on the nerves the shock of everything it really hasn't I don't think it's still still settled in with us thinking about how much money it is like I said it's life-changing I didn't mention I live in Michigan before and I'm 47 yeah I called multiple lawyers to see if we could and I was put in each time that you're not allowed to do that in New Jersey that is ten easy cuts actually when I went down to look at my numbers and I know it's weird that's why I say we do believe it's God's plan I actually had something come over me I'm a little racist and I'm not saying that to be cocky I actually felt that but I guess everyone feels that when they go down low hit their numbers so it just happened I was I would say lucky but we don't believe my wife and I don't believe in luck we are doing the catch option probably probably I played a couple times since then I don't know probably right now maybe I'll stop later on again it's it's guys decision what he wants to have the big numbers to and it's his plan Tuesday's tax stay you know where you going getting all your personal finances together like everybody else now hosting you got this monkey wrench in your equation I don't worry about that that's up to my financial team I don't mean about this money I mean about your personal life where you struggle in the kind of you know put your personal finances together and then all of a sudden yeah I do my taxes early I'm usually I'm on the first ones off the cases the w2's I send my taxes on I don't like to have to deal with I said I really haven't thought about it you know we we're going to be looking at a lot of different things but I have a I have to meet with my financial team they're gonna have to walk me through everything because truly I don't understand all of it that's why they're paid you know come in and help us and do what they need to do no I'm just gonna tell you that she'll be taken care of she won't have to worry about money the rest of her life but other than that I don't mean to take politics I don't even deal with politics so let's take a picture of you congratulations once again that you were as I said earlier in my comments you are the largest winner of the New Jersey [Applause] [Laughter] thank you [Applause]

Channel: CBS New York

Views: 1,555,772

Rating: 4.837667 out of 5

Keywords: CBS2 Digital, Mega Millions, MegaMillions, lottery, jackpot, New Jersey, Richard Wahl, Local TV

Id: tne02ExNDrw

Length: 18min 24sec (1104 seconds)

Published: Fri Apr 13 2018