New York lottery player keeps $21.5m win quiet for three weeks
Monday January 31st 2011A waitress from Long Beach, Nassau County, carried on working as normal for three weeks before admitting to co-workers that she’d won $21,500,000 on the New York Lottery. Patricia Eisel, who moved to the US in 1995 from County Offaly in Ireland, decided to buy lotto tickets after becoming stranded in New York over Christmas because of poor weather. She had planned on visiting family in Ireland but the delay meant she was in the city to purchase a Lotto ticket on January 5.
But even after discovering that she’d managed to match all six numbers, Mrs Eisel didn’t let on.
According to an article in today’s Belfast Telegraph, the mother of three, said: “I kept it quiet for three weeks. I knew on January 6. I got nervous, I didn't want any attention on my kids and I wanted to think.”
Mrs Eisel split from her husband Jamie last year and there is speculation as to whether the New Yorker will try to claim a portion of his estranged wife’s winnings. Regardless, Mrs Eisel already has plans for the money. She told lottery organisers she plans to buy a new home in New York with a big yard for her children to play in.