Sept. 8, 2014—Jerry Ritieni, owner of Extreme Auto Body Repairs in Massapequa, N.Y., won a $2.9 million lottery jackpot, according to a story in the New York Post.
Ritieni bought $20 worth of tickets in July, and initially forgot about them, leaving them in the center counsel of his truck for more than a month. When he came across them in mid-August, he decided to check the numbers.
“I was going through my numbers one by one, circling each number that matched up,” Ritieni told The Post. “It took a minute for me to comprehend that I just hit the jackpot. I was like, ‘No way, no way! Holy s–t!’ ”
Ritieni’s win beat odds of 1-in-47 million to win the prize, The Post reported, and he hasn’t decided whether to take the lump sum ($1.9 million) or take the cash in 26 annual installments.
“My only plan is to secure my kids’ future,” said Ritieni, a father of two, according to The Post’s story.
