09-03-2007, 11:00 PM
By AP
NOTTINGHAM, Md. -- Elwood Bartlett says a New Age bookstore made it possible for him to become an overnight multimillionaire.
He and his wife, Denise, were on their way to the shop where he occasionally teaches Wicca and Reiki healing when they stopped at a liquor store and bought two $5 Mega Millions tickets for Friday night's estimated $330-million US jackpot. Yesterday, he said one ticket was a winner.
"If it wasn't for this place I wouldn't have won the lottery," Bartlett said yesterday at Mystickal Voyage, the New Age shop.
Four winning tickets to the Mega Millions jackpot were sold in Maryland, New Jersey, Texas and Virginia.
Lottery officials said yesterday they cannot confirm the validity of Bartlett's ticket before they meet him tomorrow.
Bartlett, an accountant from Dundalk, said he made a bargain with the multiple gods associated with his Wiccan beliefs: "You let me win the lottery and I'll teach."
Both tickets he purchased had numbers chosen randomly from the computer.
Bartlett had not decided if he will accept his winnings as an annuity or choose the lump sum cash option.
The jackpot could get larger once ticket sales are tallied, but the lump sum payment would be at least $48.7 million, or about $32 million after taxes.
According to preliminary calculations, each ticket would be worth about $82 million if the prize were taken in 26 annual payments.
The odds that any ticket would match all five numbers - 8, 18, 22, 40 and 44 - and the Mega Ball number - 11 - were one in 176 million.
http://www.edmontonsun.com/News/World/20...3-sun.html
NOTTINGHAM, Md. -- Elwood Bartlett says a New Age bookstore made it possible for him to become an overnight multimillionaire.
He and his wife, Denise, were on their way to the shop where he occasionally teaches Wicca and Reiki healing when they stopped at a liquor store and bought two $5 Mega Millions tickets for Friday night's estimated $330-million US jackpot. Yesterday, he said one ticket was a winner.
"If it wasn't for this place I wouldn't have won the lottery," Bartlett said yesterday at Mystickal Voyage, the New Age shop.
Four winning tickets to the Mega Millions jackpot were sold in Maryland, New Jersey, Texas and Virginia.
Lottery officials said yesterday they cannot confirm the validity of Bartlett's ticket before they meet him tomorrow.
Bartlett, an accountant from Dundalk, said he made a bargain with the multiple gods associated with his Wiccan beliefs: "You let me win the lottery and I'll teach."
Both tickets he purchased had numbers chosen randomly from the computer.
Bartlett had not decided if he will accept his winnings as an annuity or choose the lump sum cash option.
The jackpot could get larger once ticket sales are tallied, but the lump sum payment would be at least $48.7 million, or about $32 million after taxes.
According to preliminary calculations, each ticket would be worth about $82 million if the prize were taken in 26 annual payments.
The odds that any ticket would match all five numbers - 8, 18, 22, 40 and 44 - and the Mega Ball number - 11 - were one in 176 million.
http://www.edmontonsun.com/News/World/20...3-sun.html