Couple wins $105 M lottery

When Gilberto Bueno first realized that he had struck it rich, he started to shout. Jumping up and down, he ran around his Astoria house, until he slowed down enough to tell his wife, Nelsy Pena.
Then the pair looked at each other and said, “I don’t believe it!”
For the past 17 years, Bueno, 44, has been trying his luck on the lottery, and over that time, he has won a few thousand on several occasions but never any more than that.
His usual numbers are 24, 32, 34, 36, and 39, and on Friday, April 6 picked the number 6 in honor of Good Friday as he bought his tickets from The Magazine Store on 31st Street in Astoria.
The next morning, when Bueno was checking the numbers, he realized that he and his family had won the 12-state $105 million MEGA Million jackpot.
“I saw the first five numbers,” he said. “I was waiting for the sixth and then I went crazy.”
Bueno was so excited that he called in sick to work, something that he has rarely done in the 17 years he has stocked shelves at the Key Food in Astoria. When he realized the significance of the win - a lump sum of $39 million after taxes - Bueno decided to quit his job in the grocery store and possibly relocate to Florida or Santo Domingo in the Dominican Republic, where he and his wife emigrated from in 1990.
“With this money, they could build a new dream,” Lotto’s Yolanda Vega translated for the couple at a Shea Stadium press conference where lottery officials presented the Queens pair with an oversized check.
In addition to raising their 23-year-old daughter, Bueno and Pena have taken in a number of foster children over the years, and hope to use much of the money to buy a bigger home for more kids. But they also joked that the extra cash will cover season tickets to the Mets.
Diehard Amazin’ fans Bueno and Pena were star struck as they stood in the locker room, surrounded by Mets paraphernalia. Bueno had never met any of the players but hoped he would that evening when he tossed out the opening pitch to Mets catcher Paul Lo Duca, as the Queens team took on the Washington Nationals.
“He said he’s going to throw a strike,” Vega translated for Bueno.