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This Article is From Jul 10, 2013

Indian-American to get $100,000 for selling winning lottery ticket

Washington: An Indian-American beer distributor and shop owner in Pennsylvania will get $100,000 for selling a lottery ticket worth $131.5 million.

30-year-old Gary Patel immigrated to the US from India as a teenager. The winner of the lottery ticket has not been identified yet.

Father of twin babies, Patel came to know about his jackpot - the commission that he would get for selling the mega lottery ticket, when an official of Pennsylvania Lottery visited his store to ensure that the ticket was sold from his store.

"You sold the Powerball ticket? Congrats, Gary!" customer Kim Morfiah said - actually, yelled at the top of her lungs - to Patel from the store's doorway.

"Oh, my God, somebody in the 'hood is rich!" a customer was quoted as saying by Philly News.

"It's getting crazy. Uh, I don't like pictures," said Patel, sporting camo shorts and a V-neck.

Patel said that his wife did not believe when he called her to give the good news.

"My wife didn't believe me when I called her. I had to FaceTime her," he said, referring to the iPhone video-chat feature.

"Then she believed me," he said.

The winner of the lottery number 13-19-23-33-57 has the option of taking $131.5 million annuity or $77.4 million cash, minus the 25 per cent federal withholding.

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