KEEPING QUIET

The Pintuff’s were presented with their dummy cheque for $48.8 million on 11th February 2011. Yolanda Vega from the New York Lottery board said at a press conference, “It’s been a long forty one days.”

Jeffrey Pintuff said that most days on his drive to work, he would listen to the radio. Every day one of the announcers would say that no one has yet claimed the $48.8 million Powerball jackpot. Pintuff said, “I would just yell at the radio, ‘It’s five in the morning and the winner is driving to work, slipping and sliding all over the place.’”

The lucky Powerball winners from New York, both 58, spent over a month after the Powerball results draw discussing their options with financial planners before coming forward on 1st February 2012. They have decided to take the cash payout, which means each of them will get $12.4 million before taxes, and $8.2 million after taxes. “I worry about what to do with 500 bucks,” Jeff said, “I am so glad we have a plan for the money.”

UNDER A FRIDGE MAGNET

Jeffrey Pintuff was on his way home from work at Atlas Copco, Voorheesville, for the holiday break and stopped at Stewart’s Shop on Route 50 in Wilton. “I left work early on 23rd December so I could help with the cooking and the cleaning before our guests came,” Jeff said. He decided to play Powerball with a Quick Pick ticket for the Christmas Day Powerball draw. “I put the ticket on the fridge under a magnet, like I always do,” Jeffrey said, “And never gave it a second thought until the morning after the draw.”

It wasn’t until Monday 27th December that Jeffrey checked the Powerball draw results online. He said to his wife, “We won the Powerball!” “How many numbers did we get?” Christine asked. They both checked the ticket many times before they allowed themselves to believe that they had actually won the Powerball jackpot. The Pintuff’s then signed the ticket and put it in their safety deposit box for safe keeping until they were ready to tell the world of their good fortune.

Remember you can check your own numbers using our Powerball results checker to see if you’ve followed in Jeffrey’s footsteps.

MODEST PLANS

“My children keep telling me I need a new car,” Jeff said, “I only have 163,000 miles on the one I have now. I think I can get it to 200,000. Chris says she feels they deserve a long holiday as they have only been away for occasional three day breaks since 1996. The Pintuff’s say that it still hasn’t fully registered that they are now multimillionaires since the lucky Powerball draw. Jeff added that, “Maybe it will after the money gets wired into our accounts.”

The manager of Stewart’s Shop, Dan Yakush didn’t hear who had won the Powerball jackpot until 11th February. He said he is relieved that the winner has finally been revealed, so the constant questions will stop. “It never died down,” Yakush said, “I was getting the question a hundred times a day, so I’m hoping that will die down and we can go on to the next thing.”

NEIGHBOUR

Jeffrey and Christine Pintuff’s neighbour, Linda Bottiglieri was shocked when a reporter phoned her on 11th February and asked how she felt about her friend’s New York Powerball lottery win. “You’re kidding! When I see her (Christine), I’ll just have to give her a big fat hug.” Linda said the couple were very quiet and kept themselves to themselves and certainly gave no clue that they had suddenly come into money. She said Jeffrey was shovelling snow off his driveway a couple of days ago.

“I think I would have put out a banner.”