Florida Lottery Winner

For me only one thing could be more exciting than winning a Lotto jackpot. And that is, finding out that someone else has won a jackpot with my systems!!

On Tuesday, June 20, 1990 Ralph and Nancy Crapse, won a first prize jackpot in Florida's Fantasy Five Lotto game. They had wheeled 22 numbers in 100 combinations using System 3014 from my book, Lotto How to Wheel a Fortune .

The Crapses were one of seven winners sharing the $1,708,800 jackpot. Each of the seven winners collected $244,114.34 (before taxes). Only 72 hours after buying my book, at a seminar in Tampa, Florida, the Crapses hit the jackpot.

They wrote, "Dear Gail, We are so excited about winning first prize with your 5-number Lotto System 3014 for a total winning of $244,114.34 that we had to share the good news with you. We have been playing both Fantasy 5 and 6/49 games and the best we had ever done was third prize on the Fantasy 5 game until we wheeled our numbers with #3014 and won on the first try.

"We had just purchased your book at a seminar a few days before we bought the winning ticket. If a person is going to play to win, they MUST have your book! Sincerely, Nancy L. Crapse and Donnie Crapse"

Nancy Crapse watched the drawing on television. She checked her numbers and found all five winning numbers on the 58th line of System 3014. Ralph was sleeping soundly. So soundly, in fact, that, "I had to call him three times."

She called out to sleepy Ralph. "I think you ought to know about something!"

"I wanted some one else to look at them," she explained -- meaning she couldn't believe her eyes and needed confirmation that their tickets really had the winning numbers. (This is the typical reaction of first prize lottery winners. They always think their eyes are playing tricks on them and can't quite believe their good fortune.)

After winning the dream Fantasy 5 jackpot, Nancy couldn't sleep all night. But Ralph slipped back into his own dreamland. The realization that they had actually won did not dawn on Ralph until after they collected the check two days later.

"Until then," Ralph said, "I had a sense of numbness, as if I were in limbo. I had a sense of knowing the numbers were there but disbelief. This is not really happening. I'm going to wake up."

The Crapses went to Tallahassee to collect their windfall. "If you are there by 8 a.m., you get your check from the lottery by 4:30 p.m. the same day," Ralph explained. After checking in with the lottery in the morning, they spent the day in Tallahassee shopping for little gifts and things.

Both felt a sense of unease. "What if there is some glitch, what if something is wrong with the ticket? You know they run a computer check on big winners -- to see if they owe child support, or are on the wanted list," they laughed and joked, "Remember that parking ticket you had 30 years ago???"

"I got a rush when I got the check!" Ralph described the exhilaration he felt, and also the sense of achievement. The Crapses thought they could keep the win quiet, but when they returned home everybody knew they had won. "We stopped by L 'n W Mini Mart, the store where we had bought our tickets, and everybody grabbed us. My banker was shaking my hand."

"I felt like it was an act of Providence -- Divine Intervention," Ralph declared. "I called my pastor and told him 'We won that lottery.' He said, 'Thank the Lord!' I said, 'Now I'm going to give you ten percent.' I gave 10% to the church off the top."

"It came at a real low point in my life. That Tuesday morning, I had asked a friend if I could borrow $10,000. It felt good to tell him I didn't need it, but I added that I sure appreciated that he was going to help me out," he said, gratefully.

Ralph and Nancy run a heavy equipment business along with their two sons. The business specializes in agricultural work. "It has been a terrible year," said Ralph. "Our machinery has been sitting for two or three months. The late freeze really hurt. Then the farmers haven't had a good year and they are putting off any work they can. I have felt like I was punch drunk."

"Now I want to learn how to do this (win the jackpot) on a regular basis. This first one got us even with the world. Now I want to win one for me! I've got my eye on a 195 Cessna." Ralph already has two vintage planes and one antique car. "You know the only difference between a man and a boy is the price of his toys," Ralph quipped.

Ralph Crapse has this advice for people who want to win Lotto jackpots: "You can't pick it up if you don't lay it down," which is a variation of "You gotta be in it to win it."

"People who just play random numbers and don't use a wheel are wasting their money," Ralph says. "It's so foolish, it's unbelievable."