The colorful blue behemoth sitting at the entryway to Valley Brook Market on Main Street spit out a ticket worth $5 million in September. The lucky winner spent $20 for his scratch off but waited until November 20th to notify lottery officials in Fishkill to claim the prize.
“He didn’t want a lot of publicity, and preferred to not have his name made known publicly,” said Raphael Lopez, a co-owner of the busy deli between Bank and James Streets.
As soon as lottery officials knew there was a winning ticket sold from the machine, they had Lopez take out all the other scratch offs in that category from the machine because there was more than one $5 million scratch off.
Lopez and his partner Leonel M. Fernades have seen an uptick in business since word spread about the Peekskill resident who was a regular in the store getting a winning ticket. “People come in and say ‘sell me a winning ticket’,” laughed Lopez.
The news that Valley Brook was the location of a winning $5 million ticket was the perfect anniversary gift for Lopez and Fernades who celebrated their third year of ownership of the busy deli. Lopez and Fernades both worked at Valley Brook as short order cooks for some 25 years. Lopez took five years off to drive for Rio Taxi and was approached by his former boss who was interested in retiring. The former owner said he’d like to give Lopez a chance to own the business if he was interested. Lopez jumped at the chance and formed a partnership with Fernades who worked alongside him as a short order cook in the 1990’s.
Valley Brook is located across the street from a busy bus stop and is frequented by bus drivers and landscaping crews for morning coffee and hot food. There are also the regulars who stop by to purchase lottery tickets.
Fernades and Lopez added the name Friend’s to the Valley-Brook Market moniker when they became owners of the business, While the $5 million jackpot was likely life-changing for the winner, for Valley Brook’s co-owners there’s no such luck. According to the NY Lottery website, the state pays a $10,000 commission to a business that sells a winning Mega Millions or Powerball ticket – but for scratch-off winners, the retailer gets a small percentage of the cost of the ticket and a great story to tell customers.
