NEWS

Out-of-work electrician strikes it rich in sweepstakes

Paul Srubas
USA TODAY NETWORK-Wisconsin
  • Prize Patrol dropped in unannounced%2C just like in the TV commercials
  • Patrol was last in area 20 years ago%2C for Bonduel winner
  • Full prize%2C minus taxes%2C can be paid out over 30 years or smaller prize can be taken as lump sum
Karl Jonsson of Gresham reacts as he is told he is the $1 million Publisher's Clearinghouse Sweepstakes winner Tuesday.

GRESHAM — An out-of-work electrician whose longterm disability ran out more than a year ago is suddenly $1 million richer, thanks to Publishers Clearing House.

"Oh, man, it's, it's like a complete weight lifted off, and it couldn't be at a better time," said Karl Jonsson, who along with his wife and two daughters has been living with his parents in rural Gresham for the last three years. "It's been 3½ years since I've been off work. God knows what you need, and you just keep praying, and he hears and he answers."

Jonsson, 44, was home caring for a sick wife and daughter Tuesday afternoon when Dave Sayer and the Publishers Clearing House Prize Patrol dropped in at their house on the shore of Lower Red Lake to present him with a bouquet of roses, balloons and a giant ceremonial check for $1 million.

After first clearing up the confusion as to whether it was he or his dad, Karl senior, who won, Jonsson buried his face in his hands and repeated, "I just can't believe it." With his teenage daughter watching though a window, Jonsson stood in bare feet on the front sidewalk surrounded by news cameras and the Prize Patrol staff.

Karl Jonsson of Gresham, right, reacts as Dave Sayer of the Prize Patrol, left, tells him he is the $1 million Publisher's Clearinghouse Sweepstakes winner Tuesday afternoon.

Just to let him know it was serious, Sayer presented him with a real check for $25,000.

"You won't get it all at once, but we can talk about that," Sayer told him.

"I don't need it all right now. I wouldn't know what to do with it anyway," Jonsson said.

"You may get some phone calls from people you don't know," Sayers told him, "but they'll be phone calls with congratulations and good wishes and 'I'm just so glad to see a real person won, especially a person who could really use it.'"

That'd be Jonsson. He tore a bicep tendon about three years ago, and it hasn't healed right, and it just "another injury on top of a pile of injuries," Jonsson said. He moved his wife and kids here from Nebraska and started living with his parents in their house on the lake, and he only just recently began doing handyman jobs to make some money.

"I have bills," Jonsson said when asked what he planned to do with the money. "They just need to be paid. If I get nothing out of it but no bills, I'm more than happy with that.

"I'm just at a loss for words. Grateful, humbled and absolutely grateful to God," Jonsson said. "When they say he's got the whole world in his hands, he does. Prayer is incredible."

— psrubas@pressgazettemedia.com and follow him on Twitter@PGpaulsrubas.