Fortune smiles on clan
Lucky for them, it runs in the family.
A mother-and-daughter team originally from Long Island has won five lottery jackpots since 1991 — raking in a total $15.8 million.
Amy and Kimberly McCauley’s latest jackpot came last week — when Kimberly, 35, now of Charlotte, NC, won another $100,000 for the family kitty on a scratch-off ticket.
“This is so overwhelming — but it’s a good kind of overwhelming,” Kimberly said.
Her mother, Amy, 56, started the family’s amazing, good-luck streak 20 years ago when she won a $15.5 million Lotto jackpot.
At the time, the family was living in Ronkonkoma and reeling from financial woes — Amy’s husband had just had his salary cut in half, and she was unemployed and desperately trying to find work to make ends meet.
After her win, the newly minted millionaire Amy declared, “It’s time to pay off our bills and go on vacation!” and the family soon moved to North Carolina.
Amy then snared another $161,172 there playing the Carolina Cash 5 lottery game in 2008.
A year later, she came home with two more $1,000 prizes playing the North Carolina lottery’s Blockbuster game.
At the time, “I never thought I’d win anything,” Kimberly admitted.
“I figured my mom was hogging all the luck.”
That was before last week.
Kimberly said she called her mother when she realized she had won on a scratch-off ticket herself.
Still, she said she thought she’d won only $10,000. Then, while talking with her mom on the phone, Kimberly finished scratching off her ticket and discovered that she’d won the game’s top prize.
Kimberly said she may use her winnings — $68,001 after taxes — to pay off her student loans and purchase a Mini Cooper.
The win appears to have come at a particularly good time for the family.
Back in 1991, Amy decided not to take her megajackpot win in a lump sum and instead opted to take it in yearly installments, receiving $738,000 before taxes annually for 20 years.
This year is the last year she’ll receive the huge stipend.
Additional reporting by Adam Bell in Charlotte, NC
