Retired NY principal sole winner of $326 million Mega Millions jackpot

By Laila Kearney NEW YORK (Reuters) - A retired New York elementary school principal is the sole winner of a $326 million Mega Millions jackpot, the largest lottery prize won in the state's history, gaming officials said on Monday. Harold Diamond, 80, of Wurtsboro, New York, a village about 80 miles (129 km) northwest of New York City, had forgotten about the ticket he bought on a whim at a gas station and shoved into his pocket until the day after the Nov. 4 drawing, when he heard where the winning numbers were sold, the New York Lottery said in a statement. "I thought, wait a minute, I bought a ticket there last night!” Diamond said. After checking his computer-generated numbers - 09 15 24 39 41 and Mega Ball 01 - he said he was in shock. “I was in a dither, a real daze." Diamond, who received an oversized check for the prize money on Monday said he waited to cash in his ticket, purchased at the Valero gas station in Middleton, in New York's Hudson Valley region, until after Jan. 1 for tax reasons. He credits his financial luck to his wife, Carol, a retired high school math teacher, who urged him to stop at the gas station due to bad weather on their drive to dinner. Diamond opted to take a single lump sum payment of $197,456,087 and will net a total $130,676,438 after standard withholdings. Plans for the money include helping family and “giving back to the local community,” Diamond said. Mega Millions drawings are held on Tuesday and Friday nights. New York's previous largest win in the game was in 2011, when a group of seven state employees who pooled their ticket money won $319 million. (Reporting by Laila Kearney)