Thomasville construction worker assembles $50M lottery win

Drawing Date: 11/27/2012

ATLANTA – “Honey, we won the lotto!” That’s what Zippy Vonier, 55, announced to his wife Wednesday

“My wife was brushing her teeth, and I told her to come in and sit down,” said Vonier, a Thomasville resident. “She was just kind of shocked.”

Vonier won by matching all of the winning numbers in Tuesday’s Mega Millions drawing.

The jackpot increased from an advertised $49 million to $50 million after final sales were tallied. Vonier selected the cash option and will receive $38,197,097 before taxes.

Susie Q’s #0001, located at 13091 U.S. Highway 319 N. in Thomasville, sold the jackpot ticket. Georgia Lottery officials presented Vonier with a ceremonial check at the store Friday.

Winning numbers from Tuesday’s drawing were: 5-12-26-42-49 and the Mega Ball was 24.

“We got the numbers from a random Quik Pik years ago, and we just kept playing the same numbers,” Vonier explained.

Vonier and his wife, Betty Jo, have two children and three grandchildren. The construction worker said the family will pay bills then take their time deciding the next step.

“We’re not going to do much right now,” he said. “Just sit back and weigh our options.”

Since its first year, the Georgia Lottery Corp. has returned more than $13.8 billion to the state of Georgia for education. All Georgia Lottery profits go to pay for specific educational programs, including Georgia’s HOPE Scholarship Program and Georgia’s Pre-K Program. More than 1.4 million students have received HOPE, and more than 1.2 million 4-year-olds have attended the statewide, voluntary prekindergarten program.

For more information on the Georgia Lottery Corp. and Mega Millions, please visit:

www.galottery.com, www.lotterybenefitsgeorgians.com and www.megamillions.com

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