Seven Lindy Residents among Powerball Winners

At Costco everything comes in bulk. Apparently that also includes lottery winners.

Twenty employees of the Melville store officially came forward on Thursday, announced as the winners of the , the largest prize ever awarded on Long Island.

Among the winners: seven Lindenhurst residents.

New York lottery “queen” Yolanda Vega brought the group out to meet the public outside the Costco where they met, work and will now share millions together.

Suffice to say, luck plays a part in hitting the jackpot. In this case a bit of absent-mindedness did too.

Group ticket buyer Anthony Manzolillo of Lindenhurst was on his way to the store on West Montauk Highway in Lindenhurst to buy his own tickets when he realized something.

"He didn't have his group money on him," said fellow winner Kim Karkota of Mastic. "So he left the store, went home, got the $120, went back and bought our tickets."

Manzolillo bought a group of Quick Pick numbers. Included was the set, 8-18-38-46-56, with 31 as the Powerball. Timing is everything, as those computer-generated numbers would turn out to be worth a fortune.

The drawing was June 1, and Ralph Green of Copiague got up the next day at 4 a.m. to go to work. He checked his copy of the group's numbers against the winning line. Euphoria set in.

"I went through the numbers one by one, shaking my head, clearing my eyes. I couldn't believe what I was seeing," Green said. "I went to the bedroom, woke my wife up, dragged her by the computer...We won."

Green sprang into action, and began calling his fellow players. By 9 a.m. they all knew they were newly minted millionaires, and they at the Lottery Claim Office in Garden City.

The group is calling themselves the 1937 Flatbush Avenue Dodgers LLC, the partnership that has claimed the prize. Manzolillo – at 73 the oldest of the winners – grew up on Flatbush Avenue in Brooklyn, hence the name. The winners elected to take their winnings in a lump sum, which after taxes, will be more than $70 million.

That gives each winner a tidy $3.5 million to play with.

"It's very exciting for me and my family," Green, 61, said. "I have three children and two grandchildren. This ensures their future."

Alan VanDett spoke for his wife, Jaime, a Costco photo department employee and one of the lucky 20. The Lindenhurst residents said their good fortune is still sinking in.

"It's still not for real in a way," VanDett said. "It's weird because you're trying to keep your composure with it, but it's hard at the same time."

Mitul Patel, who owns Maulik and Chandni, was there to claim his card store’s $10,000 bonus for . The store has a reputation for being lucky, having sold a second-place Lotto ticket worth more than $96,000 a year ago, as well as a $1 million instant-win, scratch-off game in 2006. This tops them all.

"It's awesome. I couldn't believe it," Patel said, adding that Manzolillo is a regular at his store.

Many of the employees have continued to work at Costco, a testament to their character, according to the store’s General Manager Bart Bartoldus.

"A lot of them kept working, doing their jobs even better than they normally would do," he said. "They really stayed focused; hats off to them."

So the obvious question – what will they do with the money?

Bartoldus said only one employee has given notice so far, and many of the winners are taking things slow, and, in fact, they said they’ll continue to play the lottery.

"Why ruin a good thing? We've only been playing for a month," Karkota said.

Ralph Green, for one, has some immediate plans.

"I think a trip to Vegas is appropriate."

The lucky winners and what they do at Costco:

Name

Age

Town

Costco Job

Anthony Manzolillo

73

Lindenhurst

Member Services Employee

Gwendolyn Paolini

57

Lindenhurst

Photo Manager

Jose Garcia

44

Lindenhurst

Meat Cutter

Camille Digiona

41

Lindenhurst

Payroll Clerk

Jaime VanDett

27

Lindenhurst

Photo Department Employee

James Farrelly

27

Lindenhurst

Supervisor

Kevin Saphire

24

Lindenhurst

Front-End Supervisor

Valerie Woolley

41

West Babylon

Supervisor

Earl Smith

63

Amityville

Member Services Employee

Ralph Green

61

Copiague

Security Employee

Jasper Corso

60

Woodbury

Pharmacist

Carlos Torres

60

Farmingdale

Member Services Employee

Chris Duran

53

Deer Park

Assistant General Manager

Maureen Prior

49

West Hempstead

Demonstrations Employee

Cindy Magnes

46

Wantagh

Administration Employee

Ed Obarowski

42

Islip

Supervisor

Joyce Malik

41

Selden

Administrative Manager

Kim Karkota

37

Mastic

Merchandise Manager

Michael Volino

25

Bethpage

Supervisor

Geraldine Smyth

45

Farmingdale

Vault Clerk

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