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Letter to the Editor: Pipeline explosion should serve as cautionary tale for Plains Township neighborhood

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Happy birthday Coley Leonard Comparetta!

<p>WEST BABYLON, N.Y. &#8212; A construction worker who won $1 million in a lottery scratch-off game four years ago has defied enormous odds by hitting a $1 million jackpot again.</p><p>But don&#8217;t call him lucky.</p><p>After Bruce Magistro hit the jackpot the first time in 2012, his wife, Yvonne, lost a three-year battle with cancer. Much of the prize money went to pay for her medical bills.</p><p>&#8220;She passed away two years ago today,&#8221; Magistro&#8217;s son, Nick Mayers, said Wednesday. He said he was sure the second jackpot was her way of sending help back to the family.</p><p>&#8220;This is definitely a gift, from her to him,&#8221; Mayers said.</p><p>State lottery officials introduced Magistro at a news conference at the Long Island gas station where he bought the second winning ticket April 11.</p><p>Magistro said he plays the lottery every day and plunked down $20 at Mike&#8217;s Super Citgo in West Babylon for a set of 10 Win for Life scratch-offs.</p><p>&#8220;This is impossible,&#8221; Magistro said he thought as he scratched off a lottery ticket and realized he won $1 million. &#8220;I just couldn&#8217;t believe I hit it two times.&#8221;</p><p>He now plans to share his winnings with his three children and his fiancee.</p><p>Magistro won $1 million on a different lottery scratch-off game he played at the same gas station in 2012.</p><p>The latest win came the first time he had played the Win for Life game, which will pay him $1,000 each week &#8212; with a minimum of $1 million &#8212; for the rest of his life.</p><p>Lottery representative Yolanda Vega, who had presented Magistro with a ceremonial check for his first win, said even then she felt he could win a second time.</p><p>&#8220;He was so positive and outgoing that I knew he&#8217;d win again,&#8221; she said. &#8220;There was something about Bruce that I felt. There was this energy coming from his core.&#8221;</p><p>State gaming officials said the odds Magistro beat to get the Win for Life grand prize were 1 in 7,745,600, and they were 1 in 2,520,000 when he won the Extreme Cash scratch-off in 2012.</p><p>But beating those kinds of odds twice aren&#8217;t unheard of. A North Carolina woman with breast cancer won $1 million in a lottery game in February and then scored a $250,000 prize last month. In 2012, a man in suburban Chicago won $1 million from a &#8220;Merry Millionaire&#8221; scratch-off game after winning the same amount nine years earlier.</p><p>Magistro said he plans to use the money to pay his bills and go on a vacation, though he hasn&#8217;t decided where just yet.</p><p>&#8220;Hopefully I&#8217;ll win again,&#8221; he joked. &#8220;Third time&#8217;s a charm.&#8221;</p><style>
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<div class="neCaption">Bruce Magistro, left, and lottery representative Yolanda Vega pose for a picture during a news conference in Babylon, N.Y., Wednesday, May 11, 2016. Magistro, who won $1 million in the New York Lottery for a second time, remembers thinking: &#8220;This is impossible.&#8221; </div></div><div class="metaInfo"><photo0>https://www.timesleader.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/05/web1_bruce.jpg</photo0><caption0>Bruce Magistro, left, and lottery representative Yolanda Vega pose for a picture during a news conference in Babylon, N.Y., Wednesday, May 11, 2016. Magistro, who won $1 million in the New York Lottery for a second time, remembers thinking: &#8220;This is impossible.&#8221; </caption0><photoCredit0>AP Photo/Seth Wenig </photoCredit0></div></div>
<div class="metaInfo"><bylineMeta><p>By The Associated Press</p></bylineMeta></div>

‘This is impossible:’ New York man wins his 2nd $1M lottery