Mega Millions lottery winner recounts epic win

Jan 6, 2011, 7:42 pm (61 comments)

Mega Millions

Includes video report

OLYMPIA, Wash. — No, Carolyn, it's not a heart attack. It's a fortune.

The man who bought one of two winning tickets in the $380 million Mega Millions lottery frightened his wife when he woke her Tuesday night to share the life-changing news.

"I was pale, shaking. She thought I was having a heart attack," retiree Jim McCullar recalled.

When his wife, Carolyn, asked if he was OK, he replied: "I'm perfect."

On Thursday, the couple and their adult children stepped forward to publicly claim one half of the second-largest lottery jackpot in history. Whoever is holding the other winning ticket, purchased in neighboring Idaho, remained a mystery.

At a news conference in Washington's capital city, the McCullars took hold of the oversized check, marveling at all the zeros in $190 million. Jim McCullar, 68, then promptly handed it over to his wife, 63.

"We've been married 41 years," he said. "I know what to do with this check."

In Washington, no state taxes would apply. The lump sum payment would be $90 million after the 25 percent federal tax. The McCullars said they hadn't decided how to take the payment.

In Idaho, the lucky winner has the option of taking a nearly $81 million lump sum payment after state and federal taxes are withheld, state lottery officials said.

Jim McCullar, a retired Boeing Co. worker, bought his ticket at a supermarket in Ephrata in eastern Washington, about 125 miles from Post Falls, Idaho, a suburb of Spokane, Wash., where the other ticket was sold.

The winners had to match five numbers plus the "Mega ball." The numbers were 4, 8, 15, 25 and 47, and 42 as the Mega ball.

The McCullars have played some combination of those numbers for years because they're based on the couple's birthdays. It has worked before: Jim McCullar said he won about $18,000 several years ago playing similar numbers on a keno game in Oregon.

The prospect of winning the enormous jackpot drew huge interest across the country as thousands of people lined up to buy tickets in the 41 states and Washington, D.C., where the lottery is held.

In March 2007, two winners, in Georgia and New Jersey, shared the richest prize — a $390 million Mega Millions jackpot.

Jim McCullar said he had rough plans to give some donations to charities, though he declined to name which ones. He has already given his notice at the real estate company where he was working.

The couple has been house hunting, and knows they can afford a larger place — but not too big, he said. An RV might be in their future to visit friends and family around the country, and to "hide out" for a while.

McCullar said the money will, of course, help his large extended family: six children, including two from an earlier marriage; 23 grandchildren and five great-grandchildren.

"The legacy is going to go generation after generation after generation," he said. "We're not going to blow this."

News story photo(Click to display full-size in gallery)

AP

Comments

zinniagirl's avatarzinniagirl

My congratulations to the McCullar family!!   May they not be beseiged with phony scam artists!!

sully16's avatarsully16

wow nice big family, Congrats to the McCullars.Cheers

dphillips's avatardphillips

Well, it is nice and generous he wants to take care of his kids from a previous marriage -- since we do not know their ages. Wait a minute, they are most likely under 18. He gave a press conference (I do not know if it is required) and he wants to lay low for awhile.  Is that really possible since he gave that conference? Anyway, the best to his wife and may they enjoy their new found wealth in peace.

RJOh's avatarRJOh

Quote: Originally posted by dphillips on Jan 6, 2011

Well, it is nice and generous he wants to take care of his kids from a previous marriage -- since we do not know their ages. Wait a minute, they are most likely under 18. He gave a press conference (I do not know if it is required) and he wants to lay low for awhile.  Is that really possible since he gave that conference? Anyway, the best to his wife and may they enjoy their new found wealth in peace.

*Kids from a previous marriage and he has been in this marriage 41 years would make them at least 40.

barbos's avatarbarbos

  Didn't win but nice to see my money went to great folks. Congratulations!

RJOh's avatarRJOh

Quote: Originally posted by barbos on Jan 6, 2011

  Didn't win but nice to see my money went to great folks. Congratulations!

Most of your money went to your state and local winners.  Only 30¢ of your dollar went toward the jackpot and he only won half of that.

barbos's avatarbarbos

Quote: Originally posted by RJOh on Jan 6, 2011

Most of your money went to your state and local winners.  Only 30¢ of your dollar went toward the jackpot and he only won half of that.

Smiley  Even if it was one penny - still nice.

LckyLary

On abc news radio they said the odds of buying the 2 sets with the $150 winner and the Jackpot winner were "2.7 trillion to one" - which is completely wrong! First of all, if you play your own #s and you had 2 different tickets your odds for the Jackpot are half of 175 million to one, and if the tickets share 4 common numbers then if you win one you AUTOMATICALLY win the other $150, so the odds are not 2.7T to 1 but 87.5 million to one.

Also I see that he followed Richard Lustig's prime directive of "never change your numbers".

I also noticed something about the winning set of numbers (other than the connection to the LOST show which I hate) - but, I cannot tell you what that is...but I am using that idea for the next drawing.

RJOh's avatarRJOh

Quote: Originally posted by LckyLary on Jan 6, 2011

On abc news radio they said the odds of buying the 2 sets with the $150 winner and the Jackpot winner were "2.7 trillion to one" - which is completely wrong! First of all, if you play your own #s and you had 2 different tickets your odds for the Jackpot are half of 175 million to one, and if the tickets share 4 common numbers then if you win one you AUTOMATICALLY win the other $150, so the odds are not 2.7T to 1 but 87.5 million to one.

Also I see that he followed Richard Lustig's prime directive of "never change your numbers".

I also noticed something about the winning set of numbers (other than the connection to the LOST show which I hate) - but, I cannot tell you what that is...but I am using that idea for the next drawing.

I also noticed something about the winning set of numbers (other than the connection to the LOST show which I hate) - but, I cannot tell you what that is...

I noticed he didn't elaborate much about his numbers other than to say they were just some birthdays.  This guy was retired and probably spent some time picking his numbers and if he had a special way of combining them then he's probably not sharing that.

freeobama's avatarfreeobama

I need this next Powerball jackpot!!!Dance

joshuacloak's avatarjoshuacloak

six children, including two from an earlier marriage; 23 grandchildren and five great-grandchildren.

this guy is a bunny rabbit and so are hes offspring , he had 6, then they go out and create 23 more kids, and now the grand kids are just starting to making tiny little great-grandchildren, geez

 

if i ever won the lotto, i guest i need to get busy and create a empire of offspring,   as i could afford it then LOL

besides

 

 

glad to see him win thro, you know where the money going, to hes insane large family , with that many off spring under your belt you can keep busy visiting them all, let alone making that many millions work for you to help your great grand kids, he may even live to see hes great grand kids have great-great grandkids LOL

LckyLary

He has a lot of children and grandchildren so we don't know whose ages or birthdays he used, and, I wonder what the other numbers were exactly.. to win $150 only (and not $10000 or $250000) he had to either change 1 WB and the BB, or 2 WB with ??. One story said he "switched the 5th number" (with the BB?) so maybe the 2 higher numbers being reversed (WB and BB) gave a 4+0 win. Switching 2 WB out would indicate he used an algorithm (and that the report was incorrect abut the 5th number) but switching the WB and BB you normally don't want to do that! Figure also that some % of players use systems, and even if it's 1 in 50 sooner or later pure luck comes to a system player and it will SEEM like their system won. The real proof of a system is in backtesting, show that over several drawings it would have at least did better than QP.

His ticket probably looked like:

04 08 15 25 47 BB 42 (match 5+1)
04 08 15 25 42 BB 47 (match 4+0)

In my own system, one of my weaker algorithms (QP RNG) matched 2 WB and the BB.

visiondude's avatarvisiondude

the guy didn't have any magic formula,  he said he used "birthday numbers".

birthday numbers,  even switching a couple around here or there to accomodate several family members,  is still for a lack of better way to state it - "brainless".

there is no "system" in using already in place family birthdays. 

 you can bet your life he didn't spend countless hours arranging them or rotating them because they were "due", etc. 

he was married before,  which at most he had more than the intial required number field to insert,  so he naturally rotated a couple of them on a couple of other tickets (unless he states otherwise)

it isn't a system,  yet systems players will attempt to make it into one.

i wish i had a dollar for everyone that played the lottery that night on their birthday numbers and lost.

there isn't any wisdom in sticking with the same numbers for years.  millions of people do that and lose.

tiggs95 said it correctly .......it's luck    (unless you believe in assigned fate...)

that is the one inherent component of the lottery,  that it can breed desperation,  and desperation makes a person think they can orchaestrate something they can't,  which is why there will still be people that play "birthday numbers" now,  and remain "panicked" if they "abandon" numbers they have had all these years.

buy a ticket and walk away.

if you are meant to,  you will...

VISIONthevoiceofnondesperationDUDE

rcbbuckeye's avatarrcbbuckeye

Quote: Originally posted by visiondude on Jan 6, 2011

the guy didn't have any magic formula,  he said he used "birthday numbers".

birthday numbers,  even switching a couple around here or there to accomodate several family members,  is still for a lack of better way to state it - "brainless".

there is no "system" in using already in place family birthdays. 

 you can bet your life he didn't spend countless hours arranging them or rotating them because they were "due", etc. 

he was married before,  which at most he had more than the intial required number field to insert,  so he naturally rotated a couple of them on a couple of other tickets (unless he states otherwise)

it isn't a system,  yet systems players will attempt to make it into one.

i wish i had a dollar for everyone that played the lottery that night on their birthday numbers and lost.

there isn't any wisdom in sticking with the same numbers for years.  millions of people do that and lose.

tiggs95 said it correctly .......it's luck    (unless you believe in assigned fate...)

that is the one inherent component of the lottery,  that it can breed desperation,  and desperation makes a person think they can orchaestrate something they can't,  which is why there will still be people that play "birthday numbers" now,  and remain "panicked" if they "abandon" numbers they have had all these years.

buy a ticket and walk away.

if you are meant to,  you will...

VISIONthevoiceofnondesperationDUDE

His way may be brainless, but he still won millions and you are still trying. I wouldn't knock the way he plays.

In fact, he is not the first one to win playing the same numbers for a long time.

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