Powerball winner Pedro Quezada is hosting a rent party — for his entire block.
A close friend of the newly minted megamillionaire said Quezada promised to temporarily cover the housing costs for residents in the Passaic, N.J., neighborhood that housed his bodega.
"He said he's going to pay the rent for everybody here on this block for at least a month or two months," the friend said Saturday outside Quezada's Apple Deli Grocery. "He's such a good guy."
Word of Quezada's magnanimous gesture left several of his neighbors stunned.
"God bless him, and thank you," crowed Richard Delgado, 45, after learning of the pledge.
John Koblarz's eyes lit up when he heard Quezada had offered to cover his neighbors' rents.
But then the 78-year-old landlord came to his senses.
"Oh, he can't afford to pay mine," Koblarz said. "Mine is $20,000. I own the building!"
Quezada, whose generosity is now the stuff of legend, was nowhere to be found Saturday, five days after he claimed the $338 million Powerball jackpot. But the Dominican immigrant was still the talk of the neighborhood.
Residents said the hardworking Quezada, 45, is considered a local hero.
"He's somebody who needs it, not like the people who had millions already and won it," said Delgado. Cheech Rivera, 57, said he hardly ever saw Quezada or his wife because they were always too busy working to attend summer block parties.
"They struggled. They are always constantly working," said Rivera. "They don't really have time to get together with us."
Piles of mail were stacked outside Quezada's home, including a letter from a Morgan Stanley adviser with a handwritten note on the envelope.
"I want to help you," it read.
Quezada put his bodega up for sale just two days after scoring the fourth-largest Powerball payout in history. The freshly retired Quezada opted for a lump-sum payout that will provide a $152 million payday.
And he's already taken care of the $29,000 he owed in child support, according to his friend.
Officials in Passaic County said Saturday that a child-support warrant was stayed until 1:30 p.m. on Monday, when Quezada is due to appear in court.
Thanks to Original Bey for the tip.
I have a feeling he is going to be broke in 5 years.
God bless. I was quick to judge but Pedro is very kind. This is why he won because he was the right person. He payed his debt and he's planting seeds of good. He will prosper. An inspiration.
He should pay his back child support.
In the story, it says he's take care of the $29,000 situation. He just has to go to court.
Ha! that's just what I said on the LP facebook page
Sigh, this dude...
He is clearly not that bright. First it will be this, then buying cars and homes for people, investing in friend's "business plans" they have etc etc etc. I gave him 5 years initially until broke, I have now revised my estimates to three years.
Pedro needs to seriously hire him a good lawyer and financial advisor and learn to say no and put himself on a budget. People have this illusion that having a lot of money suddenly makes them financial geniuses, and it does not, which is the major problem of most pro-athletes, not to mention everyone around them becomes yes men and no one tells them they are wrong or not to do something.
he is the kind of person i feel even if he hired those people he wouldn't listen to them.
I agree and I hope either he or some of his so called friends or family is reading this.
These people and media especially will ride him until he is dead or broke whatever comes first.
He needs to disappear for a few months until this dies down or seek professional advise quickly!!
Every thing he does is going to be in the media, especially the negative. He has to realize people (media) hate success stories and most people love to see people fail when it comes to lottery winnings. I will not even bring race into the picture, but yeah people are just waiting for more negative so it can be posterized.
It is already happening, he came forward as the winner last week and we have two or three media stories about him already.
The size of his heart will be his downfall, if he does not put a cap on it.
Lets not be so negative. This guy is doing a good thing and should be commended for it. For 2 months, his neighbors will not worry about rent. Great!
wait a minute, even the landlord thinks hes entitled to a cut?
I agree I think people here are jumping to thinking he will lose his money for no reason. And I am pretty sure I read some place he did get a financial advisor. He does need to learn to say no to people for sure. But doing this for his neighbors for a month or 2 won't have him go broke.
Wait...... LP has a FB page?
We came into a fairly significant amount of money last year. We tried to help a friend out by selling him a vehicle on payments. He made 1 payment in 3 months. My husband is a musician and he would feed the guys in his band and pay for the gas and pick them up when they needed rides. The came to expect it and I honestly feel it damaged his relationship with them. He does not speak to the first friend at all now, even though it was the friend's fault we had to ask him to bring the vehicle back. You see, you really can't help people first hand. If he truly wants to help he should form a non profit and have someone else run it. Unfortunately, life just doesn't allow you to help your friends directly.
Yeah ONLY after they had moved, changed their phone numbers, and probably changed their names. This guy is a sucker and the leeches will bleed him dry in about 5 years. The news report that I saw said he had at least 1 relative (unknown) coming out of the wood work every day.
This may be another Jack Whitaker, only worse.
It's sad. But that's the nature of the lottery. You need not have the life experience or training to be rich when suddenly you are, and that can be tragic. I hope he does better than Whitaker, of course, but I suspect he won't.
Whitaker of course had less of an excuse. He was already relatively rich when he won the big one.
Well I do commend him for doing this but unless it is set up properly, it can cause him a lot of problems. What if people don't pay their rent for two months and say I assume he was doing it as promised....or who is on the rent payment list and who is not?
and what if you were one block over, would you feel cheated because he didn't pay your rent? I see him making enemies over this.
The greed and jelousy in all of you is coming out in this thread. Quezada will never go broke, he is earning millions in interest just for having the money in the bank. Helping out the neighborhood will not even take 2% of his winnings. You all are praying on his downfall just to say (I TOLD YOU SO) and that will never happen with the amount of money he has.
He will be broke very soon!
Will be interesting to see if anyone takes him to court claiming he was in the block but rent was not paid. He needs to be careful what he says that will be put into print.
I agree with you completely..................
I thought he had a "financial advisor"......all of them are not created equal. If he does and he is making stupid statements like this, he needs to fire that financial advisor and get a REAL ONE. Depending on the amount of the rent, he could be making his "neighbors" have a huge IRS headache for next year.
Oh please. I think you are missing the big picture in terms of making open ended promises and potential litigation, etc. I don't see how any of this relates to jealousy or greed. Quite the contrary, we are hoping he excercises more caution.
"He said he's going to pay the rent for everybody here ..."
I think President Lyndon Johnson tried this. Food, too.
Anyone recall how it turned out?
Will be interesting if the IRS decides to count the rent payment as taxable income and then hit everyone up for it.
Same here. I don't wish any ill will towards him. I believe Jack Whittaker won about the same amount. He had millions just in interest, too. Now I hear he's broke. I hope this guy figures it out before he's thrown his money all over the place and it's gone.
It is not greed and jealousy..it is based mostly upon fact. Ask Jack Whittiker how many MILLIONS he lost. After being sued by many, robbed, etc... Many lottery players who won the "big" ones are now broke. The only ones who are still going strong are the ones who had a real finacial advisor and followed the advice given.
This guy should have moved immediately, changed his telephone number and claimed his winnings anonymously. The leeches are going into a feeding frenzy over his money.
So true, a fool and his money are soon departed, he'll be broke in no time or worse, in a shallow grave.
Its sickening isn't it? its hard to believe some of the comments on here about this
you know you are correct
you don't know nothing
Yes very sicknening i can't hardly read these comments any more.
That's sad. Most of us would say, oh MY friends aren't like that! I know who my real friends are.
Well, until you have money I'm not sure you do know, and even trusted relatives turn out to be mooches who get ticked off when the ATM closes.
Give us a shower of Power$.
you don't have to read them
I agree 110%. You can give someone a free fish every day or teach them how to fish.
I get the same routine over books. I have a tendency to give very detailed (free advice which most authors will not do) when someone asks me how to get a book deal (assuming for the moment they can write) and will even go to the extent to give them a battle plan. But it always comes back to bite me in the behind because they want me to do even more and then do the real work for them too...research, pass on my contacts so they don't have to educate themselves on publishing, etc. Most of these people only see a potential big $ sign only and don't want to do the hard work. I never hear any of them ever say they want to write because they have a good story to tell or want to share their expertise. At some point, I end up having to tell them to take a hike.
Anybody volunteering to help has to be bisected and dissected and inspected for malfunction. Its sad how society is.
it is really sad considering it was life insurance money. I can't imagine how people would act towards you when you just outright win millions.
One also has to wonder what would be gained by him making a formal announcement of paying people's rent. He wants to be glorified as a saint. This is not true altruism.
Like I said, your NOT in HIS position of living in the hood and wanting to give your neighbors a hand up.
From what I read it says he'll pay rent for 2 months. Unless others are reading another article elsewhere
lol....we have the same avatar. Mew!
It NOT like he is going to be paying peoples $3500. a month house payments and buying them boats.
You are the original Artist, often copied but never duplicated.
lol lol
but win lose or draw it was his choice and worst case scenario is he winds up like the golden goose
Your very right, Look at all the stories here on people who lost it all, ended up dead or in jail, on the streets,
He's Mr. Big shot now flapping is mouth off, paying rent for 2 months, really nice gesture, but somewhere, there is someone formulating a plan to get the lions share, there's a dee dee moore waiting in the shadow, 2 months of rent will turn into , we need a car, we need braces, we need a new tv, once he starts the free train, it will just gain speed, a disaster waiting to happen.
As a matter of fact, if you had ever lived in the hood you would know that those who are truly poor are often the most humble people on the planet and it wouldn't surprise me a bit if most of them turned him down.
Its the "I don't have any money" suburbanites that would feel entitled and sue him for boating money.
the golden goose
what happen to the Goose?
Not yet, they will come out of the woodwork
never lived in the hood but i've lived in the trailer park.
Like Steve Harvey says, the best thing you can do for poor people is not be one of them.
Beg to differ, grew up in Detroit, 7 mile and evergreen, makes em an ems 8 mile like like pre school, humble......lmao not hardly, you grow up fast and hard, no humble to be found in the hood.
I have a feeling he knows the difference between "his block" and yo block.
Cooked and eaten maybe?
He might as well get his desire to be poor again by being driven down the streets throwing handfuls of money to the wind until there is none left.
I have a feeling he will be drunk with power, and when he finds he can't get a moments rest, he'll run, and his so called friends will desert him.
A fool & his money....Well,you know the rest.
Expect to see this guy on the Lottery ruined my life tv show.
I'm hoping that Pedro will spend a little bit of money in my neighborhood too.
Come on down!!! Eatontown, NJ welcomes Pedro to our neighborhood!!!!!!!
You the man Pedro, you the man! I wish I had all the money to spread around. Yep, I'm jealous!
$152 million
- $29,000.00+ child support
-$ peoples rent
-new cars for family's & friends
-?????????
the list will go on and on check back next month
I have a feeling he will make everyone stand in a single file line to receive $10. and they will get tired of standing in line and quit coming over to his house.
Yep, yep, yep, gonna go broke.
@ $20k per car he has enough for 7600 cars.
They won't, that poor man will be hounded to the ends of the Earth, by every leech who thinks they deserve is money, or worse by those who think they can con it out of him.
How many of these stories do we have to read before it sinks in, if you win a big chunk, keep you mouth shut.
Amen. And if you want to give a large amount to charity, do it but do it quietly and in a thought out manner.
All I can say is that I hope it works out for Pedro, because I think I would do the same thing.
There was this little sparrow, who was standing on the ground freezing to death, and a cow came along , and Said " what wrong little sparrow? ' the sparrow explained he was cold, so the cow took a big dump on him.
Now the sparrow was squaking how he was covered in cow dung, and a wolf came along, and the wolf said " whats wrong little sparrow ? , Little sparrow explained that a cow crapped on him, so the wolf picked him out of the crap and shook him off, then ate him.
And the moral of the story, is not everyone who craps on you is your enemy, and not everyone who gets you out of crap is your friend
And if your warm and safe, keep your F&&&&ing mouth shut.
How can you be "hounded to the ends of the earth" if your not running and not hiding?
It's a figure of speech, everyone will have their hand out, what's he supposed to do, give it to everyone with a sob story ?, thats the whole world.
I've read posts of LP members who said they would do something similar if they ever won a lottery jackpot, only difference was they were talking about money they hadn't won and probably would never win.
Perhaps a security guard to keep people off his property would be sufficient?
Yea no kidding.
you know his family and friends are gonna have lame brain ideas of how to stop working their jobs and own their own business so there will go another chunk of $$$$$$
Really? Your reaching
God bless Pedro.
I have found in my conversations with people who play the lottery that most of them are not as educated in the correct ways to behave when they win the lottery.
They don't read the articles or comments on LP or USA Mega and most don't have a plan of how or what to do if they win. They just play without any real expectations of winning. None of the people I have spoken to in my travels know anything about this site or believe they will actually win.
I, on the other hand, foolishly think I might win someday and henceforth have learned from this forum what to do and what not to do in case I win.
All you need to be filthy rich is a $1.00 and a dream and if you're not prepared, it can turn into a nightmare.
If a person loses it all then I hope they had a good time spending it. God Bless them and watch over them.
If they invested it wisely and didn't let people take advantage of them then they were of that mind from the get go and God Bless them too.
I agree, even charities will hound you.
he already did, now he needs to learn how to handle the blessings
Can see it now, the soup on a stick, get rich quick dream.
alternately, he will hire them to be his bodyguards, maids, chaufers, butlers, etc. instead of hiring professionals. THey will rob him blind.
LOL!! Very good Sully!!