Pedro Quezada, 44, won the $338 million Powerball jackpot Monday and his luck could be running out. He could be subject to arrest for owning $29,000 in child support, according to CBS New York. Quezada claimed the lump-sum payment of $221 million, which will turn out to be $152 million following taxes.
He still has yet to decide what he will do with the money, but he said he could use a good car and help out his community. According to authorities, he owes child support payments from as far back as 2009. It is not known which of his five children are covered by the payments.
Bill Maer, a spokesman for the state Lottery Division, said that these types of judgments are taken care of prior to releasing the winnings. Quezada’s family moved to the United States in the 1980s from Jarabacoa in the Dominican Republic.
“I felt pure joy,” Quezada said through a translator on Tuesday. He has closed his store already. “My family is a very humble family and we’re going to help each other out,” he said. “I’m going to help a lot of people, whatever they need,” he told the New York Daily News.
Quezada’s wife said, “I had no words. My heart wanted to come out of my chest. I had no words.”
One neighbor, Eladia Vazques, told NBC New York, “This is super for all of us on this block. They deserve it because they are hardworking people.”