BELFAST, Maine — First thing on Monday morning, just like he always does, longtime maintenance man Norman Gilmore cleaned up Belfast City Hall.
Then he diverged from his usual routine in a big way. The 45-year-old Brooks man hopped in his pickup truck and drove to Augusta, where he had an important meeting — to pick up the $100,000 check he had won over the weekend after playing a $5 Maine State Lottery scratch ticket.
“I got all weak,” Gilmore recalled of the moment Sunday afternoon when he realized he was a big winner. “My legs got all weak. I had all I could do to just keep standing.”
In fact, the devoted scratch ticket player said he had almost not bothered to check that ticket because he had just won $200 on another ticket he purchased that day at Perry’s Quik Stop in Belfast.
And when he did scratch off the numbers, the meaning didn’t immediately sink in.
“He didn’t believe it. He was very disbelieving,” Rose Knowlton, a cashier who sold him the ticket, said Monday. “Norm is one of our regular coffee customers. He’s a great guy — a very nice guy. We are excited. It’s not everyday that you sell such a big winner to a normal customer.”
Gilmore, who has worked for the city of Belfast for 22 years, said that he’s not planning to make any major changes to his life because of his lottery windfall. He’ll keep right on doing general maintenance and facility care for Belfast.
“I’m not ashamed to do anything,” he said.
After paying state and federal taxes Monday in Augusta, Gilmore brought a $70,000 check back to Waldo County with him, and went to the bank first thing.
“We’re going to let everything settle down for a second. Then we’ll think about what we’re going to do,” he said. “It’ll ease up a whole bunch of burdens, though.”
One of the first things he knows he’ll do is provide some spending money to his girlfriend for an upcoming visit to her sister in Pennsylvania.
“She can go there and not worry about anything,” Gilmore said.
His son, Tony Gilmore, said that his dad is the kind of guy who does a lot for everybody.
“Tinkering around helping people,” he said. “He never wants to get charged for it. He just wants to do it to help people.”
His dad said that this might be a good time to stop buying lottery tickets.
“I’m probably to the good now,” he said. “Time to stop buying.”
Later in the conversation, however, he said that maybe it’s too early to give up the game.
“I already bought new tickets,” Gilmore said.
I love to hear of hard working folks win the lottery, can’t help but put a smile across my face. Good for you, Mr. Gilmore !!
Agreed!
Love this! so glad that sometimes good things happen to good people :-)
WELL DONE…! A good story….
Aw,what a cool story.I dont know the guy,but he seems like a cool cat. And its true,100k just isnt enough to substantially change your life.Smart man,bank it and forget about it..Enjoy a few things.
“After paying state and federal taxes Monday in Augusta…” is not exactly correct. They withhold 25% federal and 5% state income taxes from the winnings. He could get a refund or have to pay more when he files his tax returns for 2012. It depends on his total income, dependents, deductions, etc. how that will work out. I hope it works out as a refund for him.
Your math is wrong.
Ticket was $200,000.oo. He took $70,000.oo. That’s .35% of $200,000.oo, so between the fed and state, they took $130,000.oo. And that is absurd!
uh, now start at the top again.
My guess is you buy the things.
And no, I don’t.
He mispoke and he apologized for it. Do you have to rub it in?
No, it was $100k. That’s the top prize for $5 scratch tickets in Maine.
I stand corrected.
The ticket was a $100,000 winner and he received a check of $70,000 – therefore between state and federal they took $30,000 (AKA 30%)…. unless I am reading something wrong. Also in the article it mentioned that he had another winning ticket for $200; maybe that is where you are getting $200,000? Getting your numbers crossed maybe?
For example, if he is single makes $30,000 takes the standard deduction, has no dependents and withholds at single one exemption he might come up short on the state. With an income of $130,000 single one exemption the federal tax in 2011 would be $27,357 and the state $9,642. Withholding at single one would be around $3,200 federal and $1,500 state. With $7,500 withholding state he would be $2,142 short for the state. With $28,200 withholding federal he would be due a refund on his federal return. If his situation is close to this he might want to save some of that money for his state return,increase his state withhldiing, or make an estimated payment.
The calculations are not too difficult and people who already use a competent tax return preparer would probably get free help with this. The strategy is to first determine if you need to make additional estimated tax payment to state and/or feds. The rules might be different since the last time I had to check them but the month you receive a lump sum had some bearing on the requirements. Once that is taken care of you decide how much money you can hold back until you file returns. If you can get enough interest income from it, maybe banking it for the time being makes sense. If it’s a petty amount it’s probably safer to include it in your estimated tax payments. I don’t recall the rules being flexible enough to earn much interest for most people. If you had a million bucks that you could keep an extra 30 days that would be different. If I won a prize the first thing I would do is make sure all taxes are paid or set aside in FDIC insured accounts. If it’s a big enough prize I wouldn’t plan on being home at tax time next spring. Somebody would be fedexing me whatever I need to sign because I wouldn’t be back here until after mud season – just in time for blackflies.
Too bad he’s not Mitt Romney. He would have ended up keeping a lot more!
good for him, I hope he enjoys his winnings! Sounds like a really nice guy.
Like $70K is enough to quit your job buy a mansion and a yaught and a sports car . I am thinking it could help with the bills but not life changing. Not even enough to send your kids to college today.
I would agree with you – $70,000 may not be life changing in the grand scheme of things. But, I can think of plenty of things I could pay off (car, small debts, hospital bills, etc…) that I would then not have to worry about on a monthly basis. I think the amount he won (in and of itself) is not life-changing, but you could certainly make some great changes in your life that would have the potential to snowball and make your life that much better! Hope that made sense – sorry if it is rambling!
I wish I could hit at least 5 million on one of the lotteries and use the money to help others who need help the most. That’s my goal for this lifetime.
Call me stupid, but I think more people could be richer if the PowerBall split up the drawings and instead of making one person 150 million dollars richer, you could make 150 people 1 million dollars richer. It seems such a waste to have it all go to one person. I know, if the lottery was only one million dollars, nobody would play. But that is not smart. I would play a lottery if I knew they would be drawing 150 different sets of numbers. Am I crazy?
No you’re not. If more people thought they had a better chance of winning, they would play more, which equals more money for the lottery.
Not at ALL! I’d be much more likely to play for smaller sums as my chances of winning would be greater.
I’m glad he won some money, but what does the paper expect him to do? Retire and buy a mansion and a yacht on the 75K he’s going to get to keep after taxes?
Another thing, there should be no state taxes on the lottery. The state already keeps some of the proceeds from the sale of tickets; they shouldn’t get to tax the winnings also.
As long as income is taxed, the lottery will be too…..tell me this guy isn’t happy with 70k…
If Mitt Romney gets to pay 14% on the gazillion dollars he claims on his tax return, then a Maine Lottery winner should get that same benefit.
I hope by being so public he doesn’t get bombarded by lost cousins.Watch “Lottery Changed My Life”Some good stories,some not.Good luck to him.
I Love this!!! Congratulations Norman. Enjoy!!!
Winning 100,000 and 200 in one day?! Wholly shyt he should of bought a megabucks or powerball too! Congrats on your win!
“I already bought new tickets…”
Gamblers gamble. When doing the take-home arithmetic, don’t forget to subtract the years of buying tickets. Let’s see: if you buy one ticket a workday that is $1 x 200 days x 22 years = $4400.
If you bought “just one” ticket, that is…
You’re in the ballpark…so if he wins another 12k (on the next… and final… ticket he purchases), he’ll break even.
Worst thing people do after winning large amounts of money is quit there Job. Remember, buying off something doesn’t mean you will not have to spend money on it anymore. You can use that money for longer period of time if you invest in your future instead of toys today!
Good for you Sir. I am glad God Blessed you and your family, I hope you are able to make good use of it. It is nice to see someone local win the lottery.
Excellent!!! So happy for him. I too love it when a working man gets a payback.
taxing a lottery win that’s supported by the state is an abomination – for crying out loud if a person is lucky enough to win a drawing once in their lifetime let them keep the whole damn thing-how many frig times does a dollar have ta be taxed–the dollars you just won have already been taxed many times over—-Congrats are in order for him winning–but geeeesh let him have all that he won—not 3/4 of it—this whole tax thing has gotten wayyy out of hand since the tea party way back when.
“’I already bought new tickets,’ Gilmore said.” $70K net. $30K taxes.
Seems that a lot of these folks scratch the itch that the state & fed has to spend.
Then 5% tax and everything he buys, if its a car he then is taxed to register it and more taxes to put fuel in it.. so he might end up with $12.00 of untaxed money in the end..
He is ok…..He didnt make the 1% crew…..LOL
If he had, I’m sure his tax accountant would have found a way for him to keep it all!
True, thats what they do…I guess if I had the money to hire one I would do the same…
Off-shore accounts work pretty good for Mitt, too.
I dont have that much to do off shore accounts. I will stick with my credit union.
karma. keep up your good works!
I’m having a lot of fun watching our Maine educated posters try to do math. Wicked Fun!
Hopefully he will invest the money after taxes and have a really good retirement.
Ok, don’t get me wrong with what I’m about to say. I’m happy he won, truly I am. He seems like a down to earth guy, with a good head on his shoulders who won’t blow this money on stupid things.
Here’s where I might get blasted though:
What is it about HIS win that warrants a newspaper article? The Maine State Lottery has 10 active tickets out there currently with $100K prizes or higher. Some still have a few big prizes left, but many are down to just 1 left, which means there have been some jackpot winners out there. Winners of $100K, $250K, $500K, and even a million. Why have there not been articles about all of them too? Lottery winnings over a certain amount are public record, so it’s not that nobody knows who they are.
check out the payout prize sizes on any ticket.. They used to have to list how much was left of each prize size of every game. John Baldacci changed that because he change the prize sizes to 99.9% break even prizes. he raise the precentages of winning tickets to make it look good but the prizes were break even so that you would get a new ticket.. . No walk away money.. it is a courpt system..
As for the win. I am happy for him.. Please don’t take everyones advice and invest in the stock market, soon enough it will tank. the Federal reserve notes and the euro are the from the same bankers and they shall both go down hills soon and fast… Do what DHS just did and buy 250 millon rounds of hollow points.
I’m glad to read of his good fortune. But I can’t help wonder why an ordinary working man has to pay $30,000 in taxes when the truly rich people keep complaining about paying their fair share. Didn’t Romney say he paid somewhere in the range of $200K for the millions he earned? Something is just fundamentally not fair with that.
I agree. I hope everybody remembers this when it comes time to vote.
Nice story, but a HORRID headline. It implies the guy won a big Megabucks payoff or better yet, Powerball.
So very happy for him!
I love it when great thinks happen to good people!