By Anthony Gottschlich, Staff Writer Updated 4:05 PM Saturday, March 13, 2010
The Dayton area is on a roll in the Ohio Lottery these days with four winning tickets carrying jackpots of at least $100,000 sold here so far this year.
On Feb. 22, the Ohio Lottery announced Harold Sams of Dayton got a check for $100,000 after he scratched the lottery’s Tax Free Anniversary game.
Six weeks earlier, on Jan. 12, a customer purchased a $100,000 winning Kicker ticket at Dot’s Supermarket in Kettering. that was followed a few days later by a Fairborn man who won $100,000 after scratching off a Special Edition Cashword game card he bought from Smokes for less at 97 W. Dayton-Yellow Springs Road.
Smokes for less sold another big winner less than a week later when a Fairborn woman won $120,000 in the Rolling Cash 5 game.
While no one in the Dayton area won a multimillion-dollar lottery jackpot last year, Montgomery County was among the top counties in the state for winners of $10,000 or more, lottery records show. Only Cuyahoga and Lucas counties, with 406 and 164, respectively, had more than Montgomery County’s 162 winners.
The lottery’s records aren’t without errors, though. because of zip codes that cross county lines, it misidentified the home counties of some winners who live in bordering counties. The Dayton Daily News, for example, found some winners listed as Montgomery County residents who actually lived in nearby communities, such as Franklin in Warren County and new Carlisle in Clark County.
None of the recent winners returned phone calls from the Dayton Daily News for comment, including Sams, who is not to be confused with Harold K. Sams of Beavercreek, 85, an Air Force veteran who served in World War II, Korea and Vietnam and who would like to stop receiving the other Harold Sams’ mail and phone calls.
Some winners do talk publicly, though. They include Itesca McDaniel of Dayton, a 911 operator with the city of Dayton who won $130,000 last year; Frank Kronauge of Centerville, whose $120,000 win last fall rescued his small business, and Roger Stamper of Dayton, whose $60,000 jackpot paid for much-needed repairs at his Belmont home off Wayne Avenue.
Here are three winners who agreed to talk to the Dayton Daily News:
Itesca McDaniel: $130,000
Itesca McDaniel didn’t intend to spend $10 on the Rolling Cash 5 game at the Starfire Express convenience store in Harrison Twp. last February.
The 911 operator for the city of Dayton said she meant to spend just $4 on the game for four sets of numbers. but English wasn’t the clerk’s native language and she misunderstood McDaniel when McDaniel handed her a $10 bill.
“I went to work that night kind of complaining about not being understood,” McDaniel said recently, roughly one year after that Feb. 17 evening.
She didn’t complain for long. The winning numbers that night matched the last row of numbers on her ticket. anything less than a $10 purchase and McDaniel wouldn’t have won.
“The girl made a mistake and I won a hundred and thirty thousand dollars,” McDaniel said with a chuckle.
McDaniel, 56, said she later tipped the clerk around $500 — $100 right away and the rest at Christmas. The 1972 Roth High School grad said she also paid off her 2006 Chevy Impala, her home of 20 years and some other debts. she also took a trip to Aruba in January with her grown daughter, Devin McDaniel of Atlanta. she said she put the rest away for retirement.
The jackpot, she said, was a relief following a string of personal tragedies in recent years that were “emotionally and financially draining.”
As for family and friends who kidded her for a cut, “I told them it’s all stashed — they can’t have it,” McDaniel said.
Frank Kronauge: $120,000
It was early on a Sunday morning, shortly before church, that Frank Kronauge of Centerville discovered he had won big in the lottery
With his $120,000 win in the Rolling Cash 5 game, Kronauge’s prayers had been answered.
“It saved my business. Every penny went back into my business to keep the business afloat,” said Kronauge, 55, owner of Functional Fabrics, a maker of products designed to organize and “de-clutter” the home. The products, which can be found at functionalfabrics.com, have sold on QVC and the Home Shopping Network.
“The money saved us from a Chapter 11 filing by weeks,” Kronauge said, some three months after his win last fall.
The 1973 Chaminade High School graduate said he plays the lottery often. The Rolling Cash 5 game is his favorite, he said, because “it’s the best odds game they have.” His win last fall came off a $3 ticket he bought at Meijer on Ohio 741.
After taxes, Kronauge got a check for about $82,000, he said. He bought a $500 television — the only treat for himself, he said — then paid down some company debt.
He also put a chunk toward a nonprofit he’s starting with some business partners. The company, called Home assistance Now, would partially use federal stimulus dollars through the federal Neighborhood Stabilization Program to purchase and rehabilitate distressed and blighted properties for low-income housing.
Lottery money is private relief for some cash-strapped winners