'hood yesterday, said, “I didn't have a dime
in my pocket” until his purchase of a Mega
Millions ticket.
“It feels great!” said Groves, 49, near his home in the crime-riddled Grant Houses. “I'm going to Disney World!
”I was down and out, and I didn't have a dime in my pocket. I asked for a lottery ticket, in 26 installment payments. And the next day, I won $166 million.
“Then the lottery people called me back and told me it was [actually] $168 million,” said the father of two, who has not been publicly confirmed by lottery officials as the winner.
Once-broke Harlem Man in the Money
‘hood yesterday, said, “I didn’t have a dime
in my pocket” until his purchase of a Mega
Millions ticket.
James “Jimmy” Groves — a Madison Square Garden laborer who recently defaulted on his Capital One credit-card debt — yesterday told The Post that he’s the person who won half of a $336 million Mega Millions lottery jackpot two weeks ago.
“It feels great!” said Groves, 49, near his home in the crime-riddled Grant Houses. “I’m going to Disney World!
”I was down and out, and I didn’t have a dime in my pocket. I asked for a lottery ticket, in 26 installment payments. And the next day, I won $166 million.
“Then the lottery people called me back and told me it was [actually] $168 million,” said the father of two, who has not been publicly confirmed by lottery officials as the winner.
Groves has yet to collect on what would be yearly payments of $6.47 million before taxes. But he is already learning that with all that money comes mighty big headaches.
He said that since telling family and pals he won, he’s been fielding up to 40 calls each morning from friends, acquaintances and others begging for cash.
“It’s hectic,” said Groves, who had been working the midnight shift at Madison Square Garden stacking chairs. “I wake up every morning, and everyone is on me like stink on s- – -.
”Right now, I’m frustrated. I feel like my family is in a position of jeopardy,“ he said. ”This is a dangerous neighborhood.
“It’s a dream turned into a nightmare. Winning is the beginning. Living with it is pure hell.
”I know people say, ‘Give me that hell.’ Be careful what you wish for — you just might get it.“
That said, Groves was admittedly living ”paycheck to paycheck“ before the drawing and could definitely use the money.
Court records show that Capital One — the credit-card issuer whose motto is ”What’s in your wallet?“ — in March obtained a judgment of nearly $4,000 against Groves for unpaid principal and interest.
State lottery officials yesterday refused to confirm whether Groves is the person who won the half-share of the Aug. 28 Mega Millions drawing .
The winning ticket was bought at Fordham Grocery and Convenience Store in The Bronx and bore the numbers 1-17-31-37-54, with the Mega Ball 31.
The other winner of the jackpot — the second largest in Mega Millions history — bought that ticket in California.
”I can’t confirm anything until we actually have a public check presentation. We’re in the process of putting together a date, a place or time that works for everybody,“ said Lottery spokeswoman Carolyn Hapeman.
Sources at the Garden said Groves has told them he won the lottery and has not been at work since the drawing. A Garden spokesman declined to comment.
Groves’ neighbors have been buzzing for days about his reputed staggering good fortune at Grant Houses, where elevators reek of urine and most prior news stories mentioning the project have been about violent crimes there.
One neighbor said Groves last week was toting a store sign bearing the lottery prize amount.
”He told me, ‘I just won $166 million,’ “ Fred Reid, 78, recalled. ”I didn’t believe him, but I said congratulations.“
Another resident, Karen Jefferson, said the win is ”a blessing for him . . . He can move his family up, out of here.“
She said Groves was known for trying ”to get people in the neighborhood jobs at Madison Square Garden.”
Boruch ben Tzvi (A H)HaKohaine Hoffinger
BS”D
I hope he uses the money in a positive way.
I’ve been trying, unsuccessfully, to get many mispallilim to buy one lottery ticket per week.
One, there are more than one person involved (Even though the odds against millions is small.)
Two, there’s probably a birthday occurring amongst the group ever-so-often — Mazel!
Why not let us try?
Here-s why we never win the lottery
Imagine the kinah! Imagine the sinah! The cries to Heaven, “Why them and not me?” The kitrugim as we point out why they are less deserving, after all they have so so many faults! Besides, they wouldn’t use the money as well as I would…and they don’t need it as much.
Hashem spares us of all these negitive thoughts and prayers and always makes that some unknown goy wins millions, just so that His children should remain in harmoney without strife and dissent.
Yet we still manage to “out-smart” Him. We still maintain a sinah or a kinah, and the goy continues to win, while we remain losers. Oy, it’s time for me to do teshuvah!
Pat McGroin ben Keisha Mei Ash
Hoffinger encourages playing the lottery which is a form of gambling and known as a cash grab for the Lottery Corp. Desperate people play the lottery, paying a dollar for a few hours of dreaming. Our dreams are not material wealth. Let us instead dream of Moshiach – he is coming and that’s no gamble!
A Jewish lottery?
If it wasn’t for all us Jews throwing our gelt away trying to win there wouldn’t have been a jackpot for him to win.
Maybe somebody smart could think of a legal way to start a lottery just for Jews and we could keep it in our own neighborhood.
To JEWISH LOTTERY?
It would be considered biased if we would only have a “jewish Lottery”
Pat McGroin ben Keisha Mei Ash
To: To Jewish Lottery:
Bias?? Ya, like the “Jewish Press”, “Jewish Schools”, “Jewish State”, I suppose you think (assuming you can) they are all bias?!
mendel
we every week win the amount of not buying a picket