Winner Of $533 Million Mega Millions Jackpot Claims Prize
NEW YORK (CBSNewYork/AP) -- The winner of the $533 million Mega Millions jackpot has officially claimed his prize.
Richard Wahl joined lottery officials in Trenton on Friday. The 47-year-old production manager at a northern New Jersey food services facility took the cash option worth $220.7 million, after taxes.
"For us, we believe God has a plan," Wahl said. "For us, the plan is to do a lot of good things with it. We'll be working with our financial team to make things happen. It's not only life-changing money for me, but I want it to be life-changing money for others -- family, friends, people in need. So we're going to try to do some good things with that."
Wahl bought the sole winning ticket for the March 30 jackpot at a Lukoil station in Riverdale. He said he's not a regular lottery player and has only purchased tickets a few times.
"It didn't sink in," he said about realizing he had won the jackpot. "It was truly amazing."
He said he moved from Michigan to Vernon, New Jersey last July for work reasons, but didn't provide further details. Wahl said he plans to retire. One of his dreams is to rebuild a 1963 Corvette.
Lottery officials say it was the fourth-largest jackpot in Mega Millions history and the largest single jackpot winning ticket ever sold in New Jersey.
Mega Millions is played in 44 states plus Washington, D.C., and the U.S. Virgin Islands. The odds of winning a Mega Millions jackpot is 1 in 303 million.
(© Copyright 2018 CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved. The Associated Press contributed to this report.)
