By Nathan Duke
A special education teacher from Bayside and an electrician from Astoria were among five New York residents to win $1 million through the New York Lottery last week.
The other winners hailed from Brooklyn, Staten Island and Suffolk County, according to the state Lottery. The total payout for the five residents was $7 million.
Bayside’s Cora Gibney-Montes, 43, a special education teaching assistant, told her husband, Roland Montes, 45, to purchase a $2 Win $1,000 A Week for Life ticket Jan. 5.
He scratched off an instant winning ticket at Bell Boulevard’s C&G Vigorus Trading Store, earning his family a prize worth at least $1 million, the Lottery said.
“The whole thing is surreal,” Gibney-Montes said. “It’s like getting a new lease on life.”
The couple, who has two young children, will receive a minimum of 19 annual payments of $52,000, which has a net value of $32,439, and a 20th payment of $12,000.
She will receive $1 million from the Lottery from the first 19 payments and will then continue to get an annual net check for $32,439.
Astoria’s Joseph Arcos, 44, an electrician, also bought a Win $1,000 A Week for Life ticket and will bring home at least $1 million, the Lottery said.
Arcos purchases $5 worth of Lottery tickets each week. On Feb. 15, he picked up his winning ticket at the Astoria Liquor Store on 37th Street as he made his way to a nearby court where he often plays basketball with friends.
But he waited nine days until he cashed in on his prize.
“I just didn’t get around to it,” he said. “It took a while to sink in. I really didn’t believe it at first.”
Arcos will also receive 19 annual payments of $52,000 with a net value of $32,439 each as well as a 20th payment of $12,000. Once he gets $1 million, he will then be given an annual net check of $32,439.
The Lottery’s three other winners were Abdo Ashariki, a Yemeni-born father of 10 who lives in Flatbush, Brooklyn, and owns the Cortelyou Deli & Grocery; Judy Comitini, a 52-year-old from Staten Island who works for the city Department of Education; and Kristi Spillett, a 39-year-old mother of two from Yaphank, L.I.
The winners were handed their prizes March 15 at Midtown Manhattan’s Blarney Stone pub.
Reach reporter Nathan Duke by e-mail at nduke@cnglocal.com or by phone at 718-260-4566.
