A California Nurse’s Son Tricked Her Into Thinking She’d Won The Powerball Jackpot

At one point it seemed like Shlomo Rechnitz’s latest kindhearted deed would be impossible to top. The 44-year-old businessman and philanthropist (and occasional source of controversy) has made quite the living as the owner of approximately 75 nursing homes in California, and he has certainly given a lot back in recent years. His latest act of kindness took place on Tuesday, as he purchased 18,000 Powerball tickets for his employees and all the residents who live in his nursing homes. Rechnitz’s goal was to give all these people an opportunity to share a piece of the $1.6 million jackpot, much like the two Florida bros who charged people $500 a pop for 1 in 4,000 chances, but this story would have had a warmer, happier ending.

And for one woman it did have a happy ending… that eventually turned into presumable pain, disbelief, and humiliation. An unnamed nurse at Rechnitz’s Park Avenue Health Care and Wellness Center in Pomona was told by her son that her ticket was the big winner. According to the New York Daily News, the unnamed nurse’s son sent his mother a photo of the winning ticket, causing the staff and residents of the facility to celebrate. While lottery officials were uncertain if this woman was the actual winner, her kids reportedly picked her up from work to take her home. That’s when, to quote a classic Kids in the Hall sketch about a son pranking his mother, joke goes poof.

“It’s a joke. It’s a prank…by my brother,” the 56-year-old nurse’s daughter Jennifer told the Daily News from her house in Pomona on Thursday evening.

“It’s embarrassing. This is too much for us,” she said, visibly upset by all the fuss.

The woman went home thinking she was a member of the 1 percent — only to find out her son was merely joking around, the daughter said.

It’s not all bad news for the nurse, though. Ever the generous employer, Rechnitz has offered to send her on an all-expenses-paid 10-day vacation to anywhere in the world. Hopefully she picks somewhere beautiful like Bali, while her son has to spend two weeks in his room, thinking about what he’s done.

(Via New York Daily News)