UPDATE: Batavia Woman Claims $7.2 Million Lotto Prize
She’s a 33-year Batavia resident. Here’s her name and reaction to winning.
Photos
A longtime Batavian has claimed what could be the city’s biggest Lotto prize.
Ancelma Martinez is the winner of a $7.25 million Lotto jackpot, according to an Illinois Lottery news release sent on Tuesday. She won the Dec. 17 regular Lotto game drawing by matching all six numbers.
“I was very surprised, I still can’t believe I won,” Martinez said in the release.
Martinez found out she won when she read the winning numbers in a newspaper while eating breakfast with her husband at Lumes Pancake House, 1902 W. Fabyan Parkway. The release said she almost spilled her coffee everywhere when she saw 2-15-18-23-50-52, aka the exact numbers on her ticket.
Martinez chose to take a one-time, lump sum payment of $5,513,306, minus the required withholding. According to the Illinois Lottery, this is what she and her husband plan to do with the money:
- Share the jackpot with their five children and six grandchildren
- Pay off their house and car
- Go on vacation in Mexico. Maybe.
Martinez and her husband have lived in Batavia for 33 years. She has bought a $2 Lotto ticket every week for many of them.
Martinez bought her winning Quick Pick ticket at the Batavia 7-Eleven at 336 E. Wilson Street. Rick Niedfeldt, the store’s franchise owner, knows her as a regular customer. He was ecstatic to find out that she won.
“We were hoping all along that it was someone from the neighborhood,” he said.
Niedfeldt’s store will get a $72,500 bonus, or 1 percent of the jackpot, for selling the winning ticket. The Lottery sends the money straight to 7-Eleven, so Niedfeldt said he won’t even see the check. But he has seen Martinez a couple times around town since the Dec. 17 Lotto drawing. She wasn’t vocal about the big win.
“She was trying to stay really low key,” he said. “I think we all would, were we that fortunate.
“From what I know of her and her husband, they’re really wonderful people. That’s who you like to see win, people you really like and respect.”
Related Stories
Let Patch save you time. Have local stories delivered straight to your inbox with our free Batavia Patch daily newsletter.
You can also follow along on the Batavia Patch Facebook page.
Kelli Trejo
1:24 pm on Tuesday, January 15, 2013
Congrats to the winner! What a fun story to read!!