'Goodbye losers!' - said the American who won $ 198 million and left work
'06.11.2018'
Source: AP
When she learned that someone from Iowa had won half the Powerball jackpot for a total of almost 700 million dollars, Lerinn West could not find her ticket bought the day before and asked her sister to look in her car. There was a treasured piece of paper, according to which Lerinn became the owner of $ 688 million without deduction of taxes and fees. 198 million she got her hands.
The victory came as a shock to a single mother and grandmother of six, who struggled to convince her three daughters and other relatives that this was no joke - everything is for real. Associated Press.
“Nobody believed me,” West said Monday after mailing her winning ticket to the lottery headquarters in suburb Des Moines. "They thought I was crazy."
West will share the jackpot, which was hit on October 27, with another man who bought the winning ticket in New York but has not yet claimed himself. The woman was offered the option of cash payment - the ability to instantly receive $ 198,1 million minus taxes.
51-year-old Lerinn admitted that she dreamed of winning the jackpot, but "as soon as you won, immediately realize the responsibility, and all levity disappears."
She said that she would give part of the sum to her daughters and other relatives so that her six grandchildren could get a higher education, and organized the Callum Foundation, where people who need help can receive financial support. Hardly holding back tears, West said she had named a foundation in honor of her grandson, who was born prematurely last April and lived only one day.
According to Lerinn, she grew up in a “very modest family” with seven brothers and sisters in Iowa and knows what it means to lead a constant struggle for survival. As a teenager, she worked in corn and soybean fields, did not graduate from high school, but received a GED diploma and attended evening classes to get a bachelor's degree in human resources in 2006.
Prior to winning, West worked in the organization of health insurance. Now Lerinn is planning to rest, buy a new house and replace her old Ford Fiesta with a mileage 228 500 kilometers with a new car.
West bought a winning ticket in Redfield, a community of 800 people in 50 km west of Des Moines.
“I played the lottery twice a week when I had money for it,” the woman admitted. West and the second winner, who bought a ticket at a Manhattan deli overcame a 1: 292,200,000 chance to win.
The jackpot was knocked out just four days after someone won the Mega Millions grand prize worth 1,54 billion dollars, the second largest lottery prize in the United States. This ticket was sold in South Carolina, the owner has not yet declared itself.
