A retired Staten Island woman scored $85 million after buying a $5 Quick-Pick lottery ticket while she was shopping for a bottle of wine.
“I [was] just shocked. I cant explain it,” said Jin Ok Choi, 54, who will walk away with a $40,426,259 check after taxes after opting for the lump sum payment of nearly $65 million.
She plans to buy a new condo with her windfall.
Choi bought the ticket July 1 at Empire Wine & Liquor Depot on Richmond Hill Road while she was picking up wine. She rarely plays the Lotto, she said, but bought a ticket after seeing the size of the jackpot.
Other winners included NYPD cop William Sena, 28, of Bensonhurst, Brooklyn, a patrol officer at Midtown South, who will get $31,152 every year until 2031 with his $1 million scratch-off jackpot.
He bought the ticket on a whim with his brother.
“We always joke in my family, ‘Oh, we got the jackpot,’ ” said the cop at a Lower Manhattan press conference, flanked by his wife, Maria, and 2-year-old daughter, Giuliana.
But this time, when his family realized he was serious, they were overjoyed.
“Tears of joy were falling down my family’s faces,” he said.
Sena plans to use the cash to help buy a house in Brooklyn.
“I’m going to keep my job and still work every day,” the six-year veteran said. “I can’t retire. It doesn’t get you far anymore.”