ENGLEWOOD CLIFFS, New Jersey (WPIX) – Some people fantasize about quitting their job the second they win the Powerball jackpot.
Well, after a mix-up with the numbers, that’s what one restaurant employee did in New Jersey.
The whole group thought they had won nearly $1 billion — only to find out they were reading the wrong numbers.
Julian Trejos is on the job running the valet station at Grissini’s Restaurant in Englewood Cliffs, New Jersey, but only because he has no other choice.
This past Saturday night at the restaurant’s bar, as Julian’s coworkers read Powerball numbers from one of the pooled tickets they purchased as a group, incredibly, they hit every number.
It was surreal.
“That was the 20 minutes most important of my life. I feel… I feel great,” said restaurant cook Pedro Maza.
Valet drivers, bus boys, cooks in the kitchen — including Pedro Maza — all thought that they were going to share in the winnings and begin a new life.
Saturday’s jackpot was already a record $900 million. They would each get away with a cool $22 million. They already did the math, after taxes.
In fact, after learning he had hit every number, one of the cooks tossed his apron and quit on the spot.
There was only one problem.
The workers read numbers from the previous Wednesday’s Powerball jackpot, for which no winning numbers were sold. They were on their phones, during the drawing, looking at an out-of-date website that listed an old set of winning numbers.
It was left to bartender Charles Poveromo and host Cladio Campos to break the bad news.
“…And I’m staring on his phone. I didn’t want to believe that, but I just like, ‘OK, that’s the truth.’ The guys are still jumping around over there. I’m like, ‘Oh, my God,'” said Campos.
