Powerball lottery tickets with the jackpot at 1.5 billion dollars January 12, 2016. The largest lottery prize in U.S history. Photo by John Angelillo/UPI | License Photo

POMONA, Calif., Jan. 15 (UPI) -- A California nursing home erupted in celebration when a nurse won the Powerball lottery -- but her win turned out to be a prank perpetrated by her son.

A representative for Shlomo Rechnitz, owner of the Park Avenue Health & Wellness Center in Pomona, said the owner gave employees and residents a total 18,000 Powerball tickets for Wednesday night's $1.6 billion drawing, and the son of a nurse called her at work Wednesday to reveal she had the winning ticket.


Officials said there were celebration Wednesday at the nursing home and a representative for Rechnitz announced the nurse's win to the media.

However, the joy was short-lived.

"It's a joke. It's a prank...by my brother," the nurse's daughter, Jennifer, told the New York Daily News. "It's embarrassing. This is too much for us."

Rechnitz's representative told KABC-TV he wants to ease the nurse's disappointment from the "despicable" prank by sending her on an all-expenses-paid vacation to the destination of her choice.