Powerball Winner Jack Long, 76, Just Wanted Popsicles, Now Has ‘More Money Than I Can Use’

The latest Powerball winner only wanted Popsicles when he rolled his motorized wheelchair into Cardenas Market in Fontana, California, earlier this month, but he came away with a single ticket worth $60 million, making him the winner of the largest jackpot in the history of southern California’s San Bernardino County — population: two million — leaving him overcome with emotion.

“When you get to a certain age in life, you say, ‘Why am I here?'” said a tearful, 76-year-old Jack Long, at a press conference in the county Thursday as he sat in his wheelchair next to the oxygen tank that must always remain at his side. “Four years ago I got this oxygen and then my eyes started going. I was at the prime of my life and I was supposed to be training for the senior Olympics.”

Long won the Powerball jackpot in the July 19 drawing.

Taking his Powerball winnings as a single $35.9 million payment, Long, who says he’s lived “six or seven different lives,” now has “definitely more money than I’ll ever be able to use.”

So he plans to start giving the money away to various charities — beginning right in his hometown.

“Fontana has been good to me and my kids,” Long said. “So that’s where I start, is in Fontana.”

Long, a local character known around Fontana for his four cars, which include a PT Cruiser decked out with red flames, as well as a Corvette, says that he was only looking to beat the heat — which can cause him serious problems due to his various health issues — when he visited the store in search of Popsicles, and decided to shell out four bucks on lottery tickets.

He bought a Mega Millions ticket and a California Super Lotto ticket for a dollar each, then spent $2 on a Powerball Quick Pick ticket. But he never checked the numbers until a neighbor told him that word around town was that the Powerball winner was an older man in a wheelchair. But even when Long checked his ticket, that fact that his life had suddenly changed didn’t seem real to him.

“I kept lookin’ at it and lookin’ at it,” he said, again becoming emotional. “I could see the numbers but I couldn’t believe it.”

While Long plans to build a house for his grandchildren and take a vacation in Italy, he said he has few indulgences planned for himself with his newfound wealth. Except for one: a faster wheelchair.

“I found a power chair that went 18 miles an hour. I’m tired of this eight miles an hour,” said the newest Powerball multimillionaire. “I love speed.”