Winning Ticket

BOSTON -- A "Who Won It" mystery has gripped this city since the Big Game numbers were drawn April 6.Word has it that an immigrant cabbie is the holder of the ticket to $197 million -- the second-largest jackpot in U.S. history. The rumor is that he works at the dark Town Taxi garage in the shadow of Fenway Park. A place where, if the tale is true, he might never have to work again.John Ford, Town Taxi's vice president, confirms a biographical sketch of the rumored millionaire: Patrick Okusanya, in his mid-30s, from Nigeria, worked on and off for 10 years as a cabdriver, 60- to 80-hour workweeks, a wife, three children, lives in Chelsea, all in all "a very kick-back, friendly guy."

At the Twin Rivers Laundry yesterday, the buzz was all about could-have-been, should-have-been and why-wasn't-it-me, after Maryland Lottery officials announced that the winning ticket for the $36 million Big Game jackpot was purchased in the Middle River coin-operated laundry.But it was Fred Albert Wise Jr. of Middle River who picked the magic numbers 07-16-18-35-47 and 23 and walked away with the prize. Choosing the cash option, Wise will take home $18.3 million all at once."I'm shaking and sweating.

WESTERVILLE, Ohio -- Long before yesterday, they called themselves "The Lucky 13."Long before the country was seized by a fevered frenzy of lottery mania, jamming traffic in towns across the country as rabid ticket-buyers waited endlessly in line for a fantastically slim chance at instant riches, they were ponying up a few dollars a week, figuring that someday their luck would change.Thirteen men of very modest means, assembly-line workers at an industrial parts factory here just north of Columbus, got the winning ticket for the biggest lottery ever, the $295.

John and Julie Nicholson, both 61, are still playing to win, even after learning they will collect a $1.6 million Lotto jackpot over the next 20 years.John Nicholson, a retired Naval officer, said he has already bought another $2 Quik Pik Lotto ticket from Odenton Liquors on Annapolis Road, the place he bought the winning ticket Thursday."Not that I'm greedy, but my wife said to," the self-described "house husband" said. Buying two $2 tickets a week has been a habit for 14 years, said Mr. Nicholson, who asked that his address not be published.

Date for house raffle pushed back to June 25The date to draw the winning ticket for the Severna Park home being raffled to raise funds for the Easter Seal Society for Disabled Children and Adults has been changed from March 29 to June 25. The original drawing was scheduled for Feb. 17.Ron Simmonds, a sales agent with Century 21 Crist Realty, changed the drawing date for the second time in order to sell the remaining 8,000 tickets. A total of 30,000 $10 tickets will be sold.Located at 19 Severn River Road in Anne Arundel County, the rancher has been appraised at $243,000.

Each week, Allview Liquors on Old Annapolis Road in Columbia's Dorsey's Search village sells about 1,000 Maryland lottery tickets.A winning ticket was sold Nov. 15 to a customer who plays the lotto on a regular basis: Tom Jarvis, one of the store's three owners.Jarvis won a 1997 Chevrolet Blazer worth about $25,000 with a "Hot Cars Cool Cash" scratch-off ticket.He said that he has won before but "nothing of this magnitude." He doesn't usually buy scratch-off tickets, he said.He and his daughter, Jessica, 17, will pick up the Blazer as soon as it arrives at a local dealership.

It's Maryland's $9.5 million mystery.State lottery officials say that the $19 million jackpot offered in a Jan. 20 drawing was split between two winning tickets.But the officials -- for the first time -- refuse to identify one of the winners, citing a request for anonymity and an exemption under Maryland's public information law.The only clue: The ticket was purchased at a liquor store and deli in Towson.According to a ruling by the state attorney general's office, lottery officials must respect the confidentiality of winners, unless they allow their names to be released.

Robert and Ann Roth, a retired couple from Frederick, have four daughters and six grandchildren scattered across the United States. Sometimes their phone bill gets hefty, and Robert gets angry.Not anymore.The Roths discovered yesterday morning over breakfast that they had one of the three winning tickets for Wednesday's $15 million lotto jackpot -- a ticket Robert, 67, had purchased for his wife of 43 years on their anniversary, which was Wednesday.The couple, and two other winners, will each get $5 million -- or $250,000 a year for the next 20 years.

For Daniel and Albina Thoma, a weekly 20-mile drive from their home in Townsend, Del., to Elkton proved to be a trip worth $8.3 million.Yesterday, Mr. and Mrs. Thoma accepted a facsimile check for $8.3 million from the State Lottery Agency a week and a day after they bought a winning Lotto ticket.They didn't even realize they had won until a week after the drawing and were so nervous about driving to Baltimore yesterday -- on Mr. Thoma's 61st birthday -- that they rented a limousine for the trip.

FORT WORTH, Texas -- A Pennsylvanian won Wednesday night's $10 million Texas lottery. But he or she may not be able to collect a dime.Uncertain is whether the state lottery commission will pay the winner because he or she bought the winning ticket through an (( out-of-state lottery service, whose operations violate Texas law, lottery spokesman Steve Levine said Friday."

Mega Millions player produces winning ticket A Baltimore woman got a piece of good news on her 49th birthday last week: She learned she had bought the winning Mega Millions ticket from last week's $24 million jackpot drawing. The woman, who wishes to remain anonymous, and her daughter brought a locked safe containing the winning ticket to the state lottery office yesterday, said agency spokeswoman Carole Everett. The lottery office is not far from Carroll Station, the bar-restaurant on Washington Boulevard in Pigtown where the ticket had been sold.

The usual suspects were at Pimlico Race Course yesterday, clutching their racing programs in one hand and their hopes in the other, a cold beverage nearby to help combat the heat. The last day of the live racing season looked, sounded and smelled like any other day at the track. Of course, it's not every day that you get a chance to witness history. While handicappers of all shapes and sizes were making their way to and from the betting windows, particular attention was being paid to Belmont Park, where Big Brown attempted to become the first horse to win the Triple Crown since 1978.

Mega Millions winners get $5.3 million each A mother and daughter from the Essex area cashed in yesterday the winning Mega Millions ticket sold this month at a Baltimore County store, a lottery official said. The winners, who have chosen to remain anonymous, selected a cash payout of $15,771,000, said lottery spokeswoman Carole Everett. After such deductions as taxes, the two took home $5.3 million apiece, Everett said. The ticket was valued at $27 million if annual payouts had been chosen.

Hemant Shah marveled yesterday at how close he came to possibly being the latest Mega Millions lottery winner. Instead, the owner of Mace Liquors in Essex said he learned yesterday morning that one of his customers snatched up the lucky single-winning ticket - and its $26 million bounty - exactly four minutes before Shah. "I'm ecstatic," said Shah, who has owned the store for five years. "I knew deep down that we'd sell one." Shah, 59, said lottery officials called him about 9:30 a.m. to tell him that the winning ticket had been bought at his store, but he doesn't know which customers has it. The winning numbers from Friday night's drawing were: 10, 19, 37, 40 and 48. The Mega Ball number was 1. If the winner opts for a lump-sum payment, he or she could net about $15.2 million, Maryland Lottery Director Buddy Roogow said yesterday afternoon.

WOODBINE, N.J. --Long before the lottery came to Woodbine, a Frenchman named Baron de Hirsch had his own dream of riches, buying 5,300 acres in 1891 for what he imagined would become a Jewish agricultural paradise. By the 1970s, most of the Jews had left, and Woodbine is not particularly noteworthy now, a blue-collar city of 16,600 in southern New Jersey. For the moment, though, it feels to many who live here like the center of the universe. "Whoever purchased that ticket put us back on the map," said Jim Schroder, who owns Campark Liquors on DeHirsch Avenue, where the winning ticket was sold.

New Year's parties at 2 public libraries The Abingdon and Joppa branches of Harford County Public Library will have parties Friday from 6 p.m. to 8 p.m. for middle and high school students to celebrate the new year. Activities will include flashlight limbo, board games, and Beat the Clock. At the Abingdon branch, teens can watch a movie; at the Joppa branch, the library's Xbox game system will be available. Snacks will be provided. To register: Abingdon, 410- 638-3990; Joppa, 410-612-1660.

IF YOU wanted a great Baltimore story, there was Bernadette Gietka last week, lighting up a news conference with a smile that wouldn't quit and hugging everyone including the guy setting up the folding chairs, which tends to happen when you've just won a $183 million lottery. Gietka is 54 and juggled four jobs before hitting it big. But now she had her eyes on a new Corvette and a big house with a bowling alley in the basement, and you had the feeling the only job she'd have now would be helping the Brinks trucks back down her driveway.

Assistant manager Wayne Croghan opened Geresbeck's in Essex at 6:30 a.m. yesterday. Fifteen minutes later, he was coping with television cameras, lottery officials and a persistently ringing telephone. A customer at this family-owned grocery in a strip mall along Eastern Boulevard had become a multimillionaire overnight, winning $180 million in the multistate Mega Millions game, the largest jackpot ever won in Maryland in the state's 30-year lottery history. Absent a winner, the spotlight fell on the store.

Suzanne Obrecht perked up when she heard a newscaster recently liken the odds of winning the Big Game lottery to getting hit by lightning. The Roland Park woman took it as a sign. As she stood in line yesterday at the Royal Farms convenience store in Mount Washington waiting to buy her first-ever Big Game ticket, Obrecht told how, pregnant with her first child in 1975, she was knocked loopy by a lightning strike near her home. She has four kids now, and says 27 years is long enough to wait for that metaphorical second bolt.

Sometimes, putting your money on a bad team can be a good gamble. When Randy Hatch, coach of the winless Carroll Academy Lady Jaguars in Huntingdon, Tenn., bought a Fantasy 5 lottery ticket during a trip to Florida last month, he selected the numbers of his five starting players. Back home in Tennessee a few days later, he checked on the Internet and found the winning numbers: 15, 22, 23, 31 and 35. "I thought, these sure do look familiar," he said. Hatch booked a flight to Tampa and verified that he, indeed, had the winning ticket, worth $113,000.