Life is cruel and bitter and most of us die shivering in a ditch behind the strip mall Papa John's, alone and forgotten by our ungrateful children, but it's okay, because sometimes the government bestows unfathomable riches on one lucky citizen, inspiring the rest of us to soldier on toward our inevitable doom. Yesterday a bodega owner who lives and works in downtrodden Passaic, New Jersey became a beacon of hope for gambling addicts across America when he came forward to claim the $338 million Powerball jackpot.
Pedro Quezada, a 44-year-old immigrant from the Dominican Republic, called his wife from the liquor store where he bought the ticket, telling her, "I'm a millionaire, Ines. Did you hear?” Local residents swarmed the liquor store and the Quezadas’ apartment building, located by the highway at the end of a dead end street—NorthJersey.com describes the area as one of "North Jersey’s poorest enclaves, tucked in the bell curve of the Passaic River and cut off from the rest of the city by the six traffic-clogged lanes of Route 21."
Outside the apartment, one man shouted, "I'm living next to a millionaire!" But probably not for long; as liquor store owner Sunil Sethi told reporters yesterday, "If he is living in Passaic, he's definitely moving out." Quezada has three kids and has struggled with debt—neighbors say they rarely see him because he usually works from 6 a.m. to 11 p.m. at the bodega he owns with his son. Two years ago, thieves broke into their small apartment and stole everything. Yesterday he called his mother and yelled, "We won! We won! We’re not gonna be poor anymore!”
Sethi says Quezada would stop in every night to buy one lottery ticket and two Corona beers. Asked what he would do with the money, Quezada told reporters, "I’m going to help a lot of people, whatever they need." And one local resident described Quezada's luck as "a blessing for the neighborhood. It gives people hope that there is a blessing somewhere, for somebody." After taxes, Quezada will receive roughly $152 million.
