Extraordinary winnings, ordinary life
Published: March 6, 2007
The first clue as to how things have changed for Harold and Helen Lerner — the Rutherford couple who won $258 million in the Mega Millions lottery in 2005 — is when you try to call their phone number.
It’s the one that rings in their tidy, three-bedroom Tudor-style home in Rutherford and, whoops, hang on, make that used to ring there.
“We’re sorry,” a voice intones, “You have reached a number that has been disconnected …”
No, if you want to find the Lerners and ask them their opinion about the latest Mega Millions jackpot — today’s drawing is for an estimated $355 million, nearing the all-time lottery record of $365 million set by Powerball last year — you have to ring a phone in a slightly pricier neighborhood. They just got a place in Bergen County they picked up for a song at $3.3 million.
Although they’d really rather not say where.
“They would like to have zero publicity,” said Alvin Adelman, their attorney, while declining an interview request on the couple’s behalf. “They’re trying to preserve their anonymity as best they can.”
Such is life for the largest lottery winners in New Jersey history, who took the cash option on their prize and ended up taking home roughly $117 million after federal taxes.
And there is little evidence to suggest Helen, 53, or Harold, 61, have spent a whole lot of it since then. They gave some money to Helen’s alma mater, Seton Hall, although the university will only say they gave “generously” and declines to say how much. They gave $10,000 to Vilas Patel, the owner of Leprechaun News, where Helen purchased the winning ticket.
Otherwise? They were so slow to spend money they actually stayed in their old neighborhood in Rutherford for nearly a year after winning.
“I don’t understand why they stuck around so long,” said Joan Viecelli, their former next door neighbor. “I thought they were crazy for staying here. If it was me, I would have been out of there.”
But the Lerners kept telling friends they were trying to maintain an ordinary existence. Sure, they quit their jobs — Harold had been selling kitchen products out of their home and Helen had been in pharmaceutical sales — but neighbors said they made no wild purchases or extravagant trips.
Their idea of a big purchase was to buy a security camera for the front door. Their idea of a trip was to go into New York to talk with money managers.
They tried so hard to be ordinary they even held a garage sale. The neighbors got a kick out of that, just like they chuckled when they saw Harold still mowing his own lawn.
Neighbors said they even kept driving the same cars for a while until, finally, Harold bought an Acura and Helen bought a BMW, though not one of the larger models.
“They’re very low-key, personable people, not flashy at all,” said Ed McFadden, a neighbor. “I think Harold was almost embarrassed he won, like he didn’t know what to do with that kind of money.”
Eventually, staying got to be too much. Word was out that the Lerners hadn’t moved, and Adelman, the attorney, said people kept tracking them down and asking them for money.
“They were two ordinary people before they won the lottery and they would like to stay ordinary people,” Adelman said.
They decided the best way to stay that way was moving. The house they bought is large, though not overstated, and sits in an affluent, though not ostentatious, neighborhood. There are two stone pillars out front — along with a sign for a security company — and a short circular driveway that had a Toyota Camry parked in it yesterday afternoon.
Their son, Andrew Lerner, answered the door and in a brief interview said his parents were in good health and good spirits.
“They’re not like those lottery winners who just blow it all,” Andrew Lerner said. “They’re doing fine.”
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