The owner of Joe’s Service Station, the Altadena, Calif., business that sold the $2 billion Powerball ticket, said he hasn’t seen lucky winner Edwin Castro since he allegedly bought the ticket at the location.
However, since he became a millionaire, the 30-year-old Hispanic has not been seen at the gas station anymore.
“We have quite a few lottery winners at our stations, but this prize is the largest worldwide. No ticket has won more than this amount,” revealed Chahayed.
“All the media ask me, did you meet him (Edwin)? Did you sit with him?’ I tell them no,” he assured.
“He hasn’t come back to the store. I am not going to look for him, but he is welcome for him to come at any time, ”he added.
By the way, the merchant recommended to the new millionaire that he guard his money from bad people and invest it wisely.
“Now, he has been publicly identified, they saw the (new) house. I tell him… be smart, watch your money; no matter how much money you have, don’t hang out with bad people,” Chahayed recommended.
“Now he is in the Hollywood Hills near Ariana Grande,” he said.
Castro along with another Hispanic identified as Urachi F. Romero (Reggie) and the California Lottery appear as defendants in a legal action filed on February 22 by José Rivera.
The plaintiff alleges that Romero stole his multi-million dollar winning ticket shortly after he purchased the ticket. The document does not specify how it came into the hands of Castro.
A preliminary hearing in the case for damages is scheduled for next July 24, as corroborated by El Diario de NY in a search in the Los Angeles County court system.
Approximately a week earlier, on February 14, the state entity announced at a press conference that Castro was the legitimate winner of the largest jackpot in the history of the United States lottery.
From then on, the office has remained adamant that Castro is the legitimate winner and that the Lottery’s rigorous rules for verifying winners leave no room for fraud such as the one denounced. Neither Rivera nor the other two defendants have made statements to the press.
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