How a Chicopee woman learned she won the Powerball jackpot
It was just by chance that Mavis Wanczyk found out she’d won the $758.7 million Powerball jackpot. During a press conference Thursday, the Chicopee woman described how she learned she’d drawn the winning numbers for the largest grand prize won by single-ticket in U.S. history.“I just happened to find out,” she said.Wanczyk said the Powerball jackpot came up when she was leaving work with a friend who is a Chicopee fireman. “We just happen to walk out and he said, ‘I bet you somebody won with these numbers as birthdays.’ And I went, ‘Oh yeah, I know, it’s never going to be me. It’s just a pipe dream I’ve always had,’” she recounted. “And he’s reading these numbers and I pull mine out and I go, ‘Hey, I have that number — I have that — I have that.’ And he goes, ‘Let me see that ticket.’ And he goes, ‘You just won.’ I go, ‘You’re joking, come on, please.’”Wanczyk said her friend told her immediately, “Sign that ticket now.”The 53-year-old hospital worker was so stunned by the news that her friend followed her home to make sure she got there safely. “That’s how I found out, from him,” Wanczyk said. Wanczyk bought the winning ticket at Pride Store & Store in Chicopee Wednesday afternoon. She said Thursday she picked her numbers randomly. The Massachusetts State Lottery initially announced that the winning ticket had been purchased at a store in Watertown, a mistake that the lottery’s executive said was due to human error. Wanczyk said she’s still “coming down” from all the feelings she’s had since learning she’d picked the winning numbers. “Last night, it was kind of like I didn’t realize I won,” Wanczyk said at the lottery’s headquarters. “Today as I’m driving here, I’m still like, ‘It isn’t true, this can’t be.’ And now it’s like, ‘Uhhh, I am a winner.’ And I’m scared but I’ll be OK.”Now, she said she wants to have some time to herself to figure out what she wants to do. She said she’s already quit her job.“The first thing I want to do is I just want to sit back and relax,” Wanczyk said. “I had a pipe dream and my pipe dream has finally come true. I wanted to retire in 12 and it came early.”
