Refugee
09-01-2007, 05:39 PM
http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/dayart/20070831/450lottery_4098546.JPG
AP
After winning $40 million after-taxes in 2002, Dick and Patricia Warren of Hoquiam, left, "put the emphasis on how to give the money away." Warren says they have given millions away to charities. But they still plan to buy tickets for this week's near-record $330 million Mega Millions jackpot.
Hoquiam couple did -- but spending $330 million is always an option, too
Flush with a $40 million lottery bankroll, Dick Warren could have pimped out Hoquiam, brought the bling to Aberdeen, put the cosmopolitan into Cosmopolis. He could have broken toys, crashed boats, collected posses and Lohaned his way through Grays Harbor.
He could have, for pity's sake, just once swaddled himself in snow-white mink and slurred, "How do you like me now?"
Nope. Instead the Hoquiam retiree, then 70, made a far more radical move. He and his wife Patricia, then 69, bought a smaller place.
Really. Just ask him. Try the same listed phone number that he had before the $90 million Mega Millions ticket came in. Find him in the same cafes as before, with the same friends he had Nov. 10, 2002, the day before his six numbers came up.
While the wealth has given the couple a chance to pour cash into favorite charities and allowed the mild indulgence of upgrading from a Ford Explorer to a Lincoln Aviator, Warren said his lifestyle hasn't shifted much.
"For us, we put the emphasis on how to give the money away," Warren said in a phone interview Thursday, conceding he and Patricia might be the exception, not the rule, for lottery winners. "We're living about the way we always have."
Even so, the couple is looking to amass more wealth by buying tickets for this week's near-record $330 million Mega Millions jackpot. As the pot has grown, there have been record sales during the past two days. The next drawing is Friday night.
The record jackpot for Mega Millions, a pooling of 12 state lotteries, is $390 million. State lottery officials didn't expect that record to be broken. The Warrens won a $93 million jackpot, collecting $40 million after taxes.
Both said the winner doesn't have to become a different person. But, they added, it's hard to stay the same. "We sure found a lot of friends and non-friends," Dick said with a laugh.
The pair discovered they were winners the morning of Nov. 12, the day after the drawing.
"I was sure it was a mistake," Patricia said after her husband checked the numbers and let out an expression not printable in a mainstream newspaper.
But lottery offices were closed for a three-day weekend. They hid the ticket in a tourist guide to Egypt on the shelf and began the wait.
"It was a rather tense weekend," Patricia said. "We made the mistake of telling a neighbor and swearing him to secrecy. He told everyone else in the neighborhood."
When they showed up at the lottery office the following Monday, the first payment was a $3 million check. "There were people waiting in our driveway when we got home," Dick said.
Two days later, the state wired in the balance.
But after the initial hubbub of news crews and phone calls and more than 700 requests for money in the first week, the furor died down.
Over the next few months, the pair financially helped some family members, bought the smaller condo and put together a business plan to give much of the money away.
Dick said the couple has given away millions so far, mostly to well-known charities, serving a wide variety of causes. Much of the rest of the winning, he said, is managed in investments.
He said it's been a pleasure to help people through known charities because, "you hear a lot of strange stories from people."
"We want to donate it ethically and effectively. We think we've done very well at that."
MEGA MILLIONS
States participating: California, Georgia, Illinois, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, New Jersey, New York, Ohio, Texas, Virginia, and Washington
Record Jackpot: March 6, 2007 -- $390 million
Chances of winning jackpot: 1 in 175,711,536
Chances of being hit by lightning: 1 in 3,000,000 (according to BBC)
Proceeds: 35 percent of ticket sales go to participating state government services
AP
After winning $40 million after-taxes in 2002, Dick and Patricia Warren of Hoquiam, left, "put the emphasis on how to give the money away." Warren says they have given millions away to charities. But they still plan to buy tickets for this week's near-record $330 million Mega Millions jackpot.
Hoquiam couple did -- but spending $330 million is always an option, too
Flush with a $40 million lottery bankroll, Dick Warren could have pimped out Hoquiam, brought the bling to Aberdeen, put the cosmopolitan into Cosmopolis. He could have broken toys, crashed boats, collected posses and Lohaned his way through Grays Harbor.
He could have, for pity's sake, just once swaddled himself in snow-white mink and slurred, "How do you like me now?"
Nope. Instead the Hoquiam retiree, then 70, made a far more radical move. He and his wife Patricia, then 69, bought a smaller place.
Really. Just ask him. Try the same listed phone number that he had before the $90 million Mega Millions ticket came in. Find him in the same cafes as before, with the same friends he had Nov. 10, 2002, the day before his six numbers came up.
While the wealth has given the couple a chance to pour cash into favorite charities and allowed the mild indulgence of upgrading from a Ford Explorer to a Lincoln Aviator, Warren said his lifestyle hasn't shifted much.
"For us, we put the emphasis on how to give the money away," Warren said in a phone interview Thursday, conceding he and Patricia might be the exception, not the rule, for lottery winners. "We're living about the way we always have."
Even so, the couple is looking to amass more wealth by buying tickets for this week's near-record $330 million Mega Millions jackpot. As the pot has grown, there have been record sales during the past two days. The next drawing is Friday night.
The record jackpot for Mega Millions, a pooling of 12 state lotteries, is $390 million. State lottery officials didn't expect that record to be broken. The Warrens won a $93 million jackpot, collecting $40 million after taxes.
Both said the winner doesn't have to become a different person. But, they added, it's hard to stay the same. "We sure found a lot of friends and non-friends," Dick said with a laugh.
The pair discovered they were winners the morning of Nov. 12, the day after the drawing.
"I was sure it was a mistake," Patricia said after her husband checked the numbers and let out an expression not printable in a mainstream newspaper.
But lottery offices were closed for a three-day weekend. They hid the ticket in a tourist guide to Egypt on the shelf and began the wait.
"It was a rather tense weekend," Patricia said. "We made the mistake of telling a neighbor and swearing him to secrecy. He told everyone else in the neighborhood."
When they showed up at the lottery office the following Monday, the first payment was a $3 million check. "There were people waiting in our driveway when we got home," Dick said.
Two days later, the state wired in the balance.
But after the initial hubbub of news crews and phone calls and more than 700 requests for money in the first week, the furor died down.
Over the next few months, the pair financially helped some family members, bought the smaller condo and put together a business plan to give much of the money away.
Dick said the couple has given away millions so far, mostly to well-known charities, serving a wide variety of causes. Much of the rest of the winning, he said, is managed in investments.
He said it's been a pleasure to help people through known charities because, "you hear a lot of strange stories from people."
"We want to donate it ethically and effectively. We think we've done very well at that."
MEGA MILLIONS
States participating: California, Georgia, Illinois, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, New Jersey, New York, Ohio, Texas, Virginia, and Washington
Record Jackpot: March 6, 2007 -- $390 million
Chances of winning jackpot: 1 in 175,711,536
Chances of being hit by lightning: 1 in 3,000,000 (according to BBC)
Proceeds: 35 percent of ticket sales go to participating state government services