March 29, 2024
BANGOR DAILY NEWS (BANGOR, MAINE

Bar Harbor lobsterman wins Megabucks jackpot > Man says $790,000 should ease retirement

BAR HARBOR — A Bar Harbor lobsterman says winning the Tri-State Megabucks $1.5 million jackpot Wednesday night should go a long way toward “a real good retirement.”

Jon Carter stayed home from fishing Thursday because of weather conditions offshore, but he still made it to Burwaldo’s, a general store on Main Street, for a 5:30 a.m. breakfast. Even at that early hour, townspeople had already heard Carter held the winning ticket.

“The phone hasn’t stopped ringing,” Carter said Thursday.

The 46-year-old Bar Harbor native said he’s been playing the same numbers at Burwaldo’s each week for 10 years, numbers his wife Penny chose from family birthdays. In fact, his slip with the numbers is kept behind the counter at Burwaldo’s.

“I just go in every week and tell them to play them,” he said.

Carter purchased his winning ticket at 5:30 a.m. Wednesday. That night, he and his wife happened to be watching TV when the numbers came on, and it was the numbers they had been playing for years. With a measure of disbelief, they rechecked the numbers at Burwaldo’s after the broadcast and found they had truly won.

By Thursday morning at 5:30, Carter was back “buying everyone breakfast in the store,” owner Tom Burton said. “He’s a hell of a guy.”

Burton said store patrons have been celebrating all day the good fortune of a well-liked neighbor and friend.

According to a spokesperson at the Maine Lottery Commission in Augusta, Carter is the first cash winner since the program initiated the cash option for Megabucks’ winners last June. Prior to that, winners were awarded money over a 20-year period.

Carter opted for the cash option when he purchased the ticket, which means he will receive about $790,000.

Although they plan to pay off a few debts and tuck some away for retirement, Carter said he and his wife, who is a loan officer at a local bank, don’t plan to “go berserk. It’s not like we’re going to travel around the world the rest of our lives. Things won’t change very much. We’ll both still get up and go to work every morning.

“It’s been a nice Christmas present,” he said.

The couple have two grown children, one a senior in college and the second a lobster fisherman.

With Carter’s win, the next jackpot will be down to $300,000. But for the Christmas Day drawing, the amount will rise by another $1 million, as lottery officials plan to pour in money from unclaimed prizes.


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