Lottery luck turns parking garage attendant into instant millionaire
NEW YORK -- A parking garage attendant's spur of the moment decision turned him into an instant millionaire.
Gregory Velez bought a Cash-4-Life lottery ticket and won the $7 million dollar jackpot.
"It hasn't sunk in, it just hasn't sunk in," he said.
That will come Monday morning, when a multi-million dollar direct deposit will appear in his account. It's why Gregory's coworkers at Gateway Garage are smiling.
Across the street, Mohammad was also wishing him well, at the place where Gregory bought what turned out to be the single winning ticket during the Feb. 28 drawing of Cash-4-Life.
It was the first time the 58-year-old has ever played the game.
"It was 8 o'clock at night and I was kind of bored and said, let me walk across the street and see what they have to play for the night," said Velez.
Gregory left work and didn't watch the drawing. The next day, word spread that someone had bought the winning ticket at the Lower Manhattan shop.
Kwku Malm at the garage looked up the numbers and asked Gregory to see his ticket.
"I said Gregory, you won, the numbers, he said what, I said yes and that's it," said Kwku.
Instead of $1,000 a day for life, Gregory chose the lump sum, which after taxes comes to just over $4.6 million.
As for working as a parking attendant.."As of that day I just looked at my guys, they looked at me and said you're leaving? and I said yes, I'm walking out," he said.
As for an over the top purchase, Gregory doesn't yet have anything in mind. He has a house with a pool and tells me he's even considering downsizing, buying a 2 bedroom condo.
One thing is for sure, he's staying in Union, New Jersey. "I got a lawyer, a finance lawyer and set up my kids," he said.
His family is thrilled. They're all heading to Disney World. As for Gregory, "Just take each day as it comes," he said.
