Mar 4, 2009 7:30 pm US/Eastern
Group Of NJ Insurance Workers Wins Mega Millions
10 Employees From Chubb Insurance In Whitehouse Station Win $216 Million Jackpot
WHITEHOUSE STATION, N.J. (CBS) ―
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A group of employees from Chubb Insurance in Whitehouse Station have been identified as the holders of the winning $216 million Mega Millions ticket sold in New Jersey, CBS 2 has confirmed.
AP
Times may be tough for the economy, but things are looking up for 10 lucky employees of an insurance company in Hunterdon County. The workers woke up Wednesday morning instant-millionaires after discovering they held the winning ticket for Tuesday night's $216 million Mega Millions Jackpot.
All it took was a dollar and a dream.
The ten co-workers at a Chubb Insurance office in Whitehouse Station pooled their resources and won the tenth largest jackpot in Mega Millions history. The IT workers have been playing the lottery for several years now.
"When it reaches a certain point, [co-worker] Al Mooney will start buying tickets and ask if people want to join," said Oscar Oviedo, one of the lucky winners.
But on Monday, with a heavy snow falling and the jackpot climbing above $200 million, Bob Space realized Al was out of town. So he dug his car out and went to buy $50 worth of tickets at a gas station in his Toms River hometown.
The magic numbers that won he and his friends the jackpot were 26-32-35-43-52, and the Mega Ball was 10.
Space bought tickets for his colleague Oviedo, who hadn't yet given him the money for this week's drawing. Later, he asked Oviedo for the $5, then told him he'd just found out they'd had a winning ticket.
"And he's like, 'You paid me right?' [I said], 'Yeah I paid you.' So he's like, 'Now you're a millionaire!'" said Oviedo.
Employee Joanne Roth said it took a while for the good news to sink in.
"I thought it was a joke, a real joke, because we won $7 last week. I said, what did we win, $4 this week?" Roth said. "We had people running down the hall [screaming], 'You won! You won! You won!'"
Now the question remains, what are they going to do with all the cash? Michael Goodman, a CPA, offered this advice:
"The safest investments are U.S. Treasury bonds. Those bonds are backed by the full faith and credit of the U.S. government," he said.
The co-workers plan to take a lump sum payment of $137 million.
(© MMX, CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved.)
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