$54.5M Lotto jackpot winners: Panic, then jubilation
Thursday, November 15, 2007 posted 04:52 AM EST
A family’s rush to confirm their winning $54.5 million Hoosier Lotto ticket caused a brief scare before they all realized the good news.
Retired steelworker Peter Gilbert, 62, East Chicago, appeared at Hoosier Lottery headquarters in Indianapolis today to claim his winnings. Gilbert said he would take the cash option instead of annual payments, meaning he will receive $40.4 million before taxes.
With Gilbert were his wife, Ann, and son, Tony Gilbert, a detective with the East Chicago Police Department.
The drawing was Wednesday. Tony said his mother called the next day and told him to come to their house right away.
“I jumped in my car and I’m flying over there,” he recalled today. “I was actually thinking something had happened to my dad, because my dad’s health hasn’t been that good.”
He was about halfway there when he called his mother to see if they had gone to a hospital emergency room.
“’No,’” she said. “’It’s good news. Hurry up and get over here.’”
The younger Gilbert arrived at his parent’s house, where they had him double-check the numbers.
“I looked at the ticket forward and backward, and I said, ‘We’re rich now.’”
Tony Gilbert plans to quit his job with the police department and join his parents on several trips. Las Vegas is their first stop, the family said. They’ve also talked about Hawaii and Jamaica.
Peter Gilbert bought the ticket at a Mobil gas station on Columbus Drive in East Chicago. Like other grandparents, he used his grandchildren’s ages to pick some of the numbers.
One other number on the ticket meant something special, Gilbert said – the age of his pit bull, Caesar.
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