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Monica Guzman
Disabled Kirkland vet wins a million dollars

Picture
Ralph Arnett (middle) poses with his two brothers, John and Randy, upon claiming his $1 million prize from the state lottery. (Washington Lottery)

A disabled Kirkland veteran who just won a million dollars in the state Lottery Raffle game would like to thank the 140,000 or so people who didn't buy a ticket.

"That really improved my odds," said 40-year-old Ralph Arnett.

Arnett bought the winning ticket Friday at Sami's Shell Station at 10801 68th Street in Kirkland. The Lottery Raffle game guarantees three million-dollar winners. The first was a 29-year-old legal assistant from Marysville. Arnett is the second.

"All weekend I had to babysit the ticket -- this little tiny piece of paper that was worth so much money," Arnett said. "I slept two and a half hours Friday night. I was just excited."

Arnett thought all weekend about what he'd do with the money. Paying off his small amount of debt is easy enough. He knows he'd like to keep his job at Center for Information Services and invest the bulk of the money. But in the short term, what? He knows he'd like to travel. But where? And how?

As far as dilemmas go, Arnett could do a lot worse.

"My dad says I should buy a sailboat and sail to Australia," he said. "Then my brother said, 'you've never sailed a day in your life.'"

Along with all those people who didn't get tickets, he's grateful to the area veterans' hospitals for the back surgeries and care that helped him recover from a couple years in Iraq in the early 1990s and will let him enjoy his extraordinary luck.

"It's great, at this point in my life, get to come up with some new goals," Arnett said. "This is, like, the most significant thing that's happened to me."

The third and final million dollar ticket has yet to be claimed. No. 103710 was sold at Tracyton Market at 5010 May Street NW in Bremerton.

Posted by at June 30, 2008 11:43 a.m.
Categories: ,
Comments
#145467

Posted by markit8 at 6/30/08 12:05 p.m.

Congrats to the vet.
RELAX! that is what you should do man!
Relax and enjoy the ride

#145494

Posted by edmondsferry at 6/30/08 12:55 p.m.

Excellent! Enjoy it, Mr. Ralph!!

#145533

Posted by themodpoet at 6/30/08 2:43 p.m.

If you're a disabled vet in this country and you want the benefits you deserve, you have a better chance at winning the lottery.

The Army. So, how do you feel about dying for rich people?

#145623

Posted by unregistered user at 6/30/08 5:43 p.m.

Congratulations Ralph! I've never known a lottery winner before! See you next week after your mini-sabbatical.

Paul

#151960

Posted by unregistered user at 7/17/08 2:28 a.m.

The comments which I left about the alleged murderer currently held in Italy had been deleted.

Perhaps this was done intentionally?

You and the other alleged murderer fans do not like it when people comment that they rather believe scientific evidence than the prime murder suspects agents e. g. family, friends, mercenaries, self promoters and fast buck merchants etc.

I do not understand your rationale, do you want comments all over the place or do you prefer to have them contained in a blog? An enigma, really, or do you not think strategically?

I don't believe you would be trying to intentionally deceive your viewer ship, but I do know one "journalist" who seems to be doing this and she is very aggressive when it comes to dissenters.

BTW, you might want to download a program which will allow you to post comments to SeattlePI forums even though two IP addresses have already been banned and perhaps more.

Anyway,

I believe murderers must be punished, not doing so is a slap in the face of the victims and their relatives, not to mention the general public.

This re-minds me of a case in Italy where a University student had been viciously murdered.

Unfortunately some of the so called journalists at SeattlePI seem to be supportive of the suspected murderer by publishing favourable articles about the prime murder suspect while at the same time actively remove comments from people who believe in justice and would like to see justice served.

Those un-ethical SeattlePI journalists should be ashamed of themselves.

You are bringing your employer into disrepute which will result in lost potential revenue. You might want to consult the accounting and marketing department before acting irresponsibly.

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