Halfway through a two-week hunting trip, Portland-area accountant Art Brenner went into the Eastern Oregon town of Madras for supplies.
He checked his lottery numbers while there and discovered that he had won the biggest Megabucks jackpot ever -- a prize of $30 million.
With that knowledge, Brenner went back to camp and kept hunting elk.
"I still had a week of hunting," he said, shrugging.
Brenner, 65, came forward Tuesday to claim the $30 million jackpot, more than two weeks after the Nov. 15 drawing.
"I'll probably build a house and invest the rest," Brenner said after turning in a ticket with all six winning numbers.
Before Tuesday, only a female relative who bought the ticket for Brenner knew of his good fortune, he told reporters at a news conference.
The relative, Susan Cox, bought the ticket the day before the drawing at a 7-Eleven in Milwaukie as the two were preparing to leave town for the hunting trip.
Cox told lottery officials that for the rest of the trip, she kept comparing the winning ticket to the printout of the winning Megabucks number.
"It's really hard to understand that you're holding such a ticket," she said.
A receptionist at Brenner's Milwaukie office said that she had been deluged with calls Tuesday from friends and clients about the jackpot. She couldn't tell them anything; she hadn't heard anything from her boss about winning the lottery.
Lottery winners can either receive 25 annual payments or a lump sum of half the total. Brenner chose the lump sum and left the Oregon Lottery offices in Salem with a check for $9.8 million after withholding for state and federal taxes.
"The annuity gets about 3 percent a year," he said. "I think I can get better than that."
He shared some of his good fortune with Cox, directing lottery officials to cut a second check worth $99,000 for her from his winnings. Brenner has been divorced for about 15 years and has no children.
Brenner has been playing the same numbers for 16 years and buys a ticket for each drawing.
"I just picked the numbers that seemed to come up over and over again," he said.
In this case, he played four sets of numbers for three drawings on a ticket that cost $6.
The accountant declined to say where he lives in Oregon, aside from saying that he is in the mid-Willamette Valley.
"I don't want the throngs of people looking me up," Brenner said.
Good for him, why rush home when your out on vacation enjoying yourself. With Oregons high payback %'s you get also the highest taxes, just shows you they get you one way or the other.
i dont hunt,but if i was on a trip and found out i won ,i'd make an excuse and leave and go cash the ticket in. i'd be afraid i would accidentally get shot,someone might mistake you for a deer. or another psycho would come and shoot at me,like the one we hear about in the news.
OR has an online game (somewhat like the new PA game everybody hates) with a "lifetime" top prize. However often the prize is paid (52k year? 13k every quarter?) the checks, after state and federal withholdings, probably aren't enough to retire on.
i think cox should have gotten more than a mere 99 thousand
dollars for taking the time to buy him the ticket and not shooting him in the back in the oregon woods and get the entire winnings herself. it is highly unlikely that anybody would have made a 'colombo' style connection between her winning of 30 million dollars and the accidental shooting to death of a hunter in the woods.
that cash amount after taxes was quite small.....
Oregon has a very high state tax. He still has to pay the remaining federal tax on the $9.8 million he is left with. Another 10% or so.
Its still some walking around money that he has left
Could be that the Oregon Megabucks cash option is set at 50% of the annuity (artificially low) rather than according to interest rates.
i would've left the deer in them woods and headed straight home from the store if i knew i won,i wouldn't have stuck around hunting wild animals......
Good for him, why rush home when your out on vacation enjoying yourself. With Oregons high payback %'s you get also the highest taxes, just shows you they get you one way or the other.
does he not know about the high rate of accidental deaths through hunting?!?
jeez man..i would have hired a body gaurd and trotted my arse back to home and then lottery office.
And they say the rich don't pay there fair share of taxes. this is an example the rich do pay at least in Oregan.
i dont hunt,but if i was on a trip and found out i won ,i'd make an excuse and leave and go cash the ticket in. i'd be afraid i would accidentally get shot,someone might mistake you for a deer. or another psycho would come and shoot at me,like the one we hear about in the news.
OR has an online game (somewhat like the new PA game everybody hates) with a "lifetime" top prize. However often the prize is paid (52k year? 13k every quarter?) the checks, after state and federal withholdings, probably aren't enough to retire on.
i think cox should have gotten more than a mere 99 thousand
dollars for taking the time to buy him the ticket and not shooting him in the back in the oregon woods and get the entire winnings herself. it is highly unlikely that anybody would have made a 'colombo' style connection between her winning of 30 million dollars and the accidental shooting to death of a hunter in the woods.
hit chaser...
Good thing it wasn't "Lose for Life".