Jan 10, 2008 1:01 pm US/Eastern
Man Turns Recycling Into $10 Million Lottery Prize
OXFORD (WBZ) ―
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Stephen Hohne with lottery executive director Mark Cavanagh on Tuesday, picking up his first check.
Mass. Lottery
A grandfather from Oxford returned his collection of used bottles and cans and turned them into a $10 million prize.
Stephen Hohne told WBZ's Ron Sanders he plays the lottery once a year with money he saves from the bottle and can returns. This year, he took his $160 and bought a few "Billion Dollar Blockbuster" scratch tickets at the Shaw's Supermarket on Southbridge Street in Auburn.
One of them was a $10 million winner - just the third of its kind so far since the game began last year.
The money didn't come right away though.
Hohne bought the tickets on Friday, but didn't scratch off all of them immediately.
He saved a few for Sunday and that's when he found the winner.
But he didn't cash it right away, because he thought there had to be a mistake.
So he finally brought the ticket to lottery headquarters in Braintree Tuesday. They told him it was real and he walked out with his first of 20 annuity checks of $500,000 before taxes.
Hohne, 54, has been an engineer for Saint-Gobain Ceramics & Plastics in Worcester for the last 36 years. His wife Carole works for the Shrewsbury School Department.
They told Sanders they have no immediate plans to retire. In fact, she bought the entire town hall lunch Wednesday to celebrate.
The Hohnes have three children and five grandchildren.
They plan to use some of the money to help their children with homes and their grandchildren with their education.
(© MMIX, CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved.)
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