"Congratulations. You won a million dollars."
The message on the phone did not seem real.
Stacey Fiore plugged her lottery numbers into the New Jersey Lottery app as she normally does, when it told her she was a winner.
"I checked again, and it said again that I won," the Barnegat woman explained.
Then she called home to get her husband, Greg, to verify.
11, 24, 50, 56 and 66
The numbers were all there. The only thing that did not match was the Powerball number. The winner was 16. Hers was 12.
“I told him he better not be messing with me,” Stacey joked. “And did we buy real tickets?”
The tickets were real.
Fiore had stopped by the Quick Stop on Bay Avenue for a quick pick Saturday. The supervisor for New York City's MTA is a weekly Powerball and Mega Millions player.
She told her co-workers she wouldn't be in if she won.
“I usually check my tickets before I go to work, but I forgot,” she said while collecting her prize with Greg.
She is now the 39th draw game player this year to win at least $1 million. She is the 10th among Powerball players.
“I was just in shock," she said. "You wait your whole life for this, and you are still in shock.”
In New Jersey, lottery players have the legal right to remain anonymous. However, Fiore doesn’t care who knows.
“I like telling people,” she said. “I went to the bank and asked to speak to the manager. I said ‘You know somebody won $1 million here in town? Well, that’s me!’ She was super excited. It’s nice to celebrate.”
The Fiores have been married 32 years. They don’t yet have any major plans for the money, other than possibly a nice vacation.
“Our kids…they are happy for us,” said Greg Fiore, who works as a bus operator. “But they do know Christmas is coming.”
Despite joking that she wouldn’t return to her job after winning a lottery prize, Stacey Fiore was back at work, an hour’s commute from home.
“Maybe no more overtime for me,” Greg Fiore said.
“Oh, there’s still going to be overtime for you!” his wife replied.
No other ticket matched five numbers, so heading into this Saturday’s drawing, the Power Ball Jackpot is at around $130 million.
