A Brooklyn truck driver is smiling extra wide after learning he won the Powerball jackpot worth $298.3 million last month, earning him bragging rights as the third New Yorker to claim the big win.
David Johnson, 56, was a truck driver for Iberia Foods who stopped by Arnold’s Service Station on Linden Lane in Brooklyn on Dec. 26 to fill up on his way to work. Although he was sick, he had to go to work to get his holiday pay, according to CBS2.
After filling up at Arnold’s Service Station, Johnson spent $5 on lottery tickets, which including one quick-pick Powerball ticket. He went to work and then came home and went to bed, messaging his job that he would be out sick the following day.
“A friend of mine, the next driver for the company called me and said ‘Dave, somebody won the Powerball at the gas station,” Johnson told CBS2‘s Aundrea Cline-Thomas. “I told him ‘no bro, that’s not me, man. That’s not my luck.’”
Johnson said when he got off the phone, he went back to sleep and didn’t think anymore of the lottery winner.
A week later, Johnson finally checked his numbers when he stopped back into the gas station before going to work.
“I looked at the board and I’m like ‘Oh my God, Jesus, Oh my God,” Johnson told CBS. “I jumped up and down in the store… I got back in my car, turned the music up and zoomed on home.”
Now Johnson is planning his fortune and says he will quit his job. “I have to lift boxes and stuff like that,” he said. “Don’t get me wrong, the job pays good. It’s hard work, so I always wanted to quit. Now, I get a chance to quit.”
After taxes, Johnson will receive $114 million. He said he is working with his attorney to place together a team of professionals to help him manage his investments and take care of his family.
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For starters, he plans to buy a new house in Brooklyn for his family, but also has his eye on something sweet for himself.
“I always wanted a Porsche, a red one so everyone can see me when I drive on the street,” Johnson told CBS2.
Prior to Johnson’s win, New York’s previous big Powerball winner was Robert Bailey, a 67-year-old retired federal employee who purchased his lottery ticket at the West Harlem deli on Fifth Avenue. Bailey split the $697 million jackpot with a 51-year-old woman from Iowa.