Guyanese carpenter Nandlall Mangal has won US$245.6 million in the Powerball game in New York.
According to today’s New York Post Mangal said “I’m sure my life is gonna change a lot”.
“It’s a lot of money,” Mangal added. “I have no idea what’s going to happen,” aside from a trip to Hawaii that he says he will take.
And this: When he actually sees the money, “I’ll probably pass out.”
The report said that Mangal, 42, bought a US$6 Quick Pick ticket on Aug. 11 while purchasing groceries at the Stop & Shop supermarket on Hylan Boulevard.
The carpenter who lives with his wife in a humble ranch home in New Dorp, remembers putting away his groceries and tossing aside the ticket.
He said he didn’t learn he was filthy rich for days, after he heard no one had claimed the winnings and he figured he should look at his ticket before throwing it out.
“The ticket sat on my kitchen table for a week because I was out of town,” on vacation in Ocean City, Md., he said, according to the New York Post.
“I really don’t check the ticket that often,” Mangal said of the few times he has bought one, generally when the jackpot goes north of (US) $100 million.
“Who’s going to think they won the lotto?”
The lump-sum payout, which Mangal is assigning to a trust he named “Sea & Sand,” totals US$99,321,975 after withholdings.
“I like sea and sand,” he explained, according to the report.
He has a warning for any long-lost relatives who might come out of the woodwork.
“If I didn’t know them two weeks ago,” he quipped, “I don’t know them today.”