Lot to Grin About

By COLL METCALFE

Jan. 31, 1997 12 AM PT

SPECIAL TO THE TIMES

Eugene Hernandez is no acrobat.

But a lack of grace didn’t stop the 240-pound Oxnard resident from somersaulting around his frontyard Thursday after learning that his girlfriend, Dolores Trejo, had won the $34-million Super Lotto jackpot.

“It’s like a dream,” the 29-year-old Trejo said as tears streamed down her face. “I don’t know what to think. It’s amazing, unbelievable, incredible.”

Now Trejo, who is four months pregnant, and Hernandez, her boyfriend of nine years, can do some of the things they have always wanted but never could afford, like securing their future and owning a home.

The couple have lived with their three children in a small two-bedroom apartment in south Oxnard for the past three years. While Hernandez, 29, worked as a self-employed gardener and landscaper, Trejo stayed home to care for their children. For them, owning a home has always been out of reach.

“Having our own house for our kids has always been a dream for us,” Trejo said. “But I never thought we’d be able to do it because we never had the money.”

In addition to buying a home, the couple said they will put some money away for their children’s education and maybe get married.

“We’ve both been thinking of it for a long time and I even asked once,” Hernandez said. “But we never had enough money to do it.”

Hernandez said he isn’t sure whether he will continue landscaping. One minute he proudly declared his retirement, while the next he talked about expanding the business.

Whatever his decision, the two will never again have to worry about stretching a dollar to make ends meet.

Their oldest daughter, 7-year-old Janice, said that with all that money, she would like to have her own maid so she won’t have to clean up after herself any more.

“And I also want a bike and a motorcycle,” she told a crowd of newscasters and reporters gathered in her small frontyard.

Trejo said she has never been an avid Lotto player, but she decided to buy a few tickets after the jackpot climbed above $30 million.

Rather than playing numbers near and dear to her heart, she let the computer pick them at random. It chose 15, 20, 27, 31, 33 and 42 and, in the process, gave her a whole new life.

Neither she nor Hernandez watched the drawing Wednesday night. They learned of their change in fortune Thursday morning after hearing that the winner bought the ticket from the 7-Eleven at 2201 N. Channel Islands Blvd., where Trejo had bought hers.

“I checked it once and I couldn’t even talk,” she said, wiping blotched mascara from her eyes. “I had to check it three or four times before I really believed I’d won.”

Gary Drewal, who has owned the 7-Eleven for four years, was happy to help make one of his customers a multimillionaire.

“It’s a beautiful feeling knowing that my store was the one that sold the ticket,” he said. “It’s long overdue.”

According to California Lottery regulations, the establishment that sells a winning ticket is awarded one-half of 1% of the prize, about $170,000 in this case. That amount will be split between 7-Eleven’s parent company and Drewal.

More than 80 Ventura County residents have won major prizes since the lottery was established in 1986, lottery officials said. Trejo, however, is the largest single winner ever in Ventura County.

She spent most of the day celebrating her good fortune with family and friends before validating the ticket with officials from the California State Lottery Commission.

Gilbert and Ramona Trejo, who rushed over from their nearby home after hearing the news, said they couldn’t be happier for their daughter. As her parents came to the door, Trejo rushed out and threw her arms around them.

“I’m going to move you out of that house,” she said, sniffling between the tears. “I’m going to get you a new one.”

Trejo will have to wait two to six weeks before receiving her first $1.2-million check. She said she can’t think of too many things she’d want for herself, except maybe the house and a new van.

She’d rather spend it on her children, she said.

“They’re the most important things in our lives,” she said. “I want to be able to give them all the things that I didn’t have when I was a kid.”