'I'm Rich!': Brooklyn Powerball Winner Comes Forward To Claim Prize
NEW YORK (CBSNewYork) – Meet 56-year-old David Johnson, the happiest man in Brooklyn whose $298.3 million Powerball jackpot win last month makes him the third New Yorker to take home the lottery's big win.
Johnson was a truck driver for Iberia Foods who was sick on Dec. 26 but had to go to work to get his holiday pay, reports CBS2's Aundrea Cline-Thomas.
He filled up at Arnold's Service Station on Linden Lane in Brooklyn as usual, spending $5 on lottery tickets including one quick-pick Powerball ticket. He worked his shift, then went to bed and messaged he would be out sick the following day.
"A friend of mine, the next driver for the company called me and said, 'Dave somebody won the Powerball at the gas station,'" he said. "I told him no bro that's not me man. That's not my luck."
He hung up, went back to sleep, and put it out of his mind.
It wouldn't be until the next Friday morning that he checked his numbers. He kept to most of his usual morning routine, but this time stopped back in at the gas station to finally check his ticket before going in to work.
"I looked at the board and I'm like, 'Oh my God, Jesus, oh my God'" he said. "I jumped up and down in the store…. I got back in my car, turned the music up and zoomed on home."
Johnson said he hasn't been back to work in a while.
"I have to lift boxes and stuff like that," he said. "Don't get me wrong the job pays good. It's hard work. So I always wanted to quit. Now, I get a chance to quit."
After taxes, he's be banking $114 million and working with his attorney to put together a team to manage a financial windfall for investments and his family.
"I was so happy I couldn't even eat, I was hungry but my stomach was full," said Johnson. "I want to sleep but I don't want to sleep. I'm still happy."
He said he plans to buy a new house in Brooklyn for his family, but that's not all.
"I always wanted a Porsche, a red one so everyone can see me when I drive on the street," he said.
New York's previous big Powerball winner was Robert Bailey, a 67-year-old retired federal employee who bought his ticket at the West Harlem Deli on Fifth Avenue. He split the $697 million jackpot with a 51-year-old woman from Iowa.
