$338 Million Beer Run Sparks Twitter Ire Over ‘Immigrant’
A $338 million beer run changed the fortunes of New Jersey man Pedro Quezada, but some Twitter users are engaging in a bit of xenophobic sour grapes over the big jackpot win.
As we reported earlier on The Inquisitr, the $338 million beer run resulted in the sixth-largest Powerball win in the history of the game, and the lucky winner didn’t have to split the jackpot with anyone.
It was revealed Sunday that the $338M jackpot winner purchased the ticket in Passaic County, New Jersey, and the identity of the winner was at first a mystery.
We soon learned that Pedro Quezada, 44, validated his ticket Monday in the late afternoon — and soon media buzzed around the Dominican immigrant and father of five.
Neighbors of Quezada described the lucky $338 million beer run winner as “hardworking,” and neighbor Jose Gonzalez commented in Spanish:
“[Quezada] sometimes would work from six in the morning to 11 at night, so I did not see him much … I am happy for him … I don’t know where he is now but I imagine he will drop by to say hi to his friends.”
While neighbors of the Powerball winner praised him as a family man with good work ethic, Twitter users and commenters on news sites were not as kind and appeared to resent the man his amazing fortune:
An illegal immigrant named Pedro is the one that won the 338 million dollar powerball. What is this country coming to….
— Andrew Schultz (@andrewschultz40) March 26, 2013
3 of 17 commenters on Philly dot com wonder if the powerball winner is illegal because he is Hispanic. #whiteinphilly — alexrolfe (@alexrolfe) March 26, 2013
Sounds like he’s illegal RT @huffpostbiz: $338 million Powerball winner described as “hardworking” immigranthuff.to/14lhNpc — DaComedyNTruth (@DaComedyNTruth) March 26, 2013
So the guy that won the 338 million Power Ball is an illegal immigrant..
— Terence Rashad (@Terence_Jenkins) March 26, 2013
FOXNews. New Jersey man ‘very happy’ after winning $338M Powerball jackpot: fxn.ws/X6ttZQ ILLEGAL ALIEN? SHOULDN’T GET A DIME!
— BentnWasted (@BentnWasted) March 26, 2013
A MEXICAN WON THE 320$ POWERBALL? ARE YOU KIDDING ME. 5 KIDS HE’S PROBABLY ILLEGAL. HE DOESN’T SPEAK ENGLISH. WTF AMERICA. WTF.
— Sam (@heysamd) March 26, 2013
Quezada chose the lump sum payout of over $200 million on his Powerball jackpot win.
