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Staten Island Plumber Wins $136M Powerball Lottery

By  Nicholas Rizzi and Sybile Penhirin | June 4, 2015 2:04pm 

 Anthony Perosi (right), a plumber, hit a $136 million jackpot and shared it with his son Anthony Perosi III.
Anthony Perosi (right), a plumber, hit a $136 million jackpot and shared it with his son Anthony Perosi III.
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DNAinfo/Sybile Penhirin

STATEN ISLAND — A Staten Island plumber is flush with cash after he checked a lottery ticket stored behind a pipe in his basement and found out he struck gold — weeks after the winning numbers were drawn.

Anthony Perosi, 56,  won $136 million in the March 14 drawing of the New York State Gaming Commission Powerball game.

Perosi said he's sharing the winnings with his 27-year-old son Anthony Perosi III, a salesman in the food industry — but feels odd about suddenly being so rich.

"I'm not comfortable about it," he said Thursday after the commission announced the win.

The senior Perosi bought his ticket on March 14 at the 7-Eleven in Pleasant Plains. He's been playing since he was 18 and won $25,000 eight years ago.

"I always knew I would win," he said. "But I didn't know it would take that long."

Perosi forgot to check his numbers after the drawing, instead leaving the winning ticket pinned on a wall behind a pipe in his basement.

When news broke that the winning ticket was bought at the 7-Eleven he frequented, Perosi called his friend, who told him a teacher won the prize.

On April 27, when he had some free time after his truck broke down, he remembered the ticket in his basement. He checked the numbers nearly 20 times and then called his son to double check.

"I tried to breath in and nothing would go in," Perosi said. "I looked at the ticket and I looked at the amount, and I just walked in a circle in my living-dining room."

Perosi will receive a lump sum of of $61,973,637, before withholdings, for his winning ticket and his son will get $26,560,131, according to the New York State Gaming Commission.

He said he will continue to work even with the money and plans to use it to make investments and travel — though it's his home state he wants to see most of all.

"I'd like to see most of New York, the city and the state," he said. "Buffalo, the woods.

"I'm going to work a lot less and make some investments for my nieces and nephews and later grandchildren."

After Perosi realized he won, he called his friend who had told him a teacher bought the winning ticket to let her know she was wrong.

"When I told her I had won a $136 million paycheck, she dropped the phone," he said.