We all dream of winning the lottery, but the people who least expect it always seem to be the winners.
One man recently decided to try his luck and to his surprise, he hit it big. Tayeb Souami had recently refinanced his home, so he could help his daughter pay for college. He and his wife also decided that they were going to cut back on their spending and try to save a much money as possible.
In fact, the same day he won, he returned a carton of orange juice to a ShopRite because his wife had found it at another store for half the price.
He happened to have two tickets that he needed to check, so he took them to the ticket scanner. The first ticket wasn’t a winner, but the second one was different. Souami explained:
“I scanned the first ticket. It wasn’t a winner. And the second ticket it was good, but always I see $2, $4, but that day I see, ‘Must be seen by the retailer.’ I scan it again and it [said the same thing]. And I say to the lady, I hand it to the lady and I say ‘Can you check? I think your machine is not working.’ My heart, it was just beating beating, beating. And she kept saying, ‘Oh, my God. Oh, my God.’ It’s like when you see a ‘Tom and Jerry’ cartoon: The heart goes boom boom boom boom.”
That’s when he found out that he had won $315 million.
He was shocked. Souami is thrilled to have won and is still in disbelief. It couldn’t have come at a better time. He had just received the check in the mail from refinancing his home. Now he can afford to pay off his home loan and pay for his daughter’s college. He will even have plenty left over to enjoy life with his wife. He said:
“This is big. I am very emotional right now. I like the numbers, and I always play with those numbers.”
After realizing that he had won, Souami did not come forward as the winner.
In fact, people were aware that someone had won a large amount of money but were wondering why nobody had admitted to being the winner. Souami explained that he wanted to wait to make sure everyone at his job would be OK without him. He didn’t want to leave them out of the blue after he had worked for the company for so long. He said:
“I have to take care of them. It’s not so easy to quit just like that.”
Souami is used to working hard. He is an immigrant from Africa, and he and his wife have built a life for themselves.
Souami bought his winning ticket from the Shoprite store in Hackensack, New Jersey. The store is extremely happy to be the seller of the ticket. John White, the acting executive director of the New Jersey Lottery, said:
“We are thrilled that the winning Powerball jackpot ticket was sold here. This jackpot win follows the colossal Mega Millions jackpot winning ticket that was sold in New Jersey in March.”
It’s a pretty big deal for everyone in Hackensack.
Maria Teves, a spokeswoman for ShopRite, said:
“We’re very excited. This is an outstanding, tremendous event for the store, the community and obviously the lucky winner.”
Souami hasn’t said what he plans to spend his money on.
Since he just refinanced his home and has a daughter starting college, it’s safe to say those will be his first two priorities. Being such a private man, he probably won’t share much more with the world. We will all have to wonder if he went back to buy that overpriced carton of orange juice after he won. His wife shouldn’t mind paying a little more for it now that she knows she has plenty of money coming in.
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