Big winner in St Louis...no, not the WORLD SERIES again...
254 million Powerball winner sold in South County
By Harry Levins and Bill Smith
ST. LOUIS POST-DISPATCH
01/25/2007
(P-D)
Dig into your wallet and check that Powerball ticket. Somebody in the St. Louis area has hit it big.
This morning, the Powerball Web site was flashing this message:
"There was one winner in the state of Missouri for the last drawing's $254,000,000 grand prize!"
The winning ticket was sold at Dierbergs, 12420 Tesson Ferry Road in south St. Louis County. Advertisement
"We're very excited," assistant store director Patricia Cook said. "Our associates are hoping it's one of our regulars. We have some people who come in every day."
As word began to leak out about 10:30 a.m., she said, "it just kind of exploded around here."
Just last April, a $224 million winner was sold in North County, at the QuikTrip at 2791 Dunn Road. That ticket belonged to 13 employees of the Missouri Department of Social Services -- quickly dubbed "The Lucky 13." At the time, the $224 million payout was Missouri's biggest ever.
The latest numbers drawn Wednesday night were 9-19-29-42-53, with the Powerball of 17.
Gary Gonder, director of communications for the Missouri Lottery,said the winner has six months to come forward. He urged the winner or winners to "take your time, get some advice from a CPA or a tax attorney."
Gonder said he was so excited when he learned that the winning ticket was purchased in Missouri that "I could barely sleep last night."
"Of the 31 Powerball members, Missouri still ranks second in terms of the number of jackpot winners with 25," Gonder said. "Since the Powerball game began in 1992, we’ve awarded $1.2 billion in Powerball jackpot prizes in Missouri alone."
Shoppers Dean Vollmer of St. Louis and Tim Davis of Anaconda, Mo. said they bought lottery tickets regularly, but had never won more than a few dollars. Asked to dream big, Davis said at first he didn't know what he would do with a multimillion-dollar jackpot. After a few seconds, though, he came up with his dream: "I'd buy a tow truck," he said.
The winner will have a choice:
-- Take the full jackpot in annual payments of $8,466,666 over three decades.
-- Settle for a one-time, up-front winning payout of $120,508,183.
Either way, the sums are before taxes.
As a bonus for selling the jackpot prize, Dierbergs will receive $50,000.
Lottery officials also announced that 20 people had tickets with the first five numbers (but not the winning Powerball number). Each will get $200,000.
Whoever bought the winning ticket beat some steep odds -- one in 146 million.
Although the quarter-billion-dollar jackpot sounds staggering, it falls short of being the biggest ever.
Last Feb. 18, the jackpot hit $365 million. The winners were eight workers at a ConAgra Foods plant in Lincoln, Neb.
And the new jackpot for Saturday night? A mere $15 million.
254 million Powerball winner sold in South County
By Harry Levins and Bill Smith
ST. LOUIS POST-DISPATCH
01/25/2007
(P-D)
Dig into your wallet and check that Powerball ticket. Somebody in the St. Louis area has hit it big.
This morning, the Powerball Web site was flashing this message:
"There was one winner in the state of Missouri for the last drawing's $254,000,000 grand prize!"
The winning ticket was sold at Dierbergs, 12420 Tesson Ferry Road in south St. Louis County. Advertisement
"We're very excited," assistant store director Patricia Cook said. "Our associates are hoping it's one of our regulars. We have some people who come in every day."
As word began to leak out about 10:30 a.m., she said, "it just kind of exploded around here."
Just last April, a $224 million winner was sold in North County, at the QuikTrip at 2791 Dunn Road. That ticket belonged to 13 employees of the Missouri Department of Social Services -- quickly dubbed "The Lucky 13." At the time, the $224 million payout was Missouri's biggest ever.
The latest numbers drawn Wednesday night were 9-19-29-42-53, with the Powerball of 17.
Gary Gonder, director of communications for the Missouri Lottery,said the winner has six months to come forward. He urged the winner or winners to "take your time, get some advice from a CPA or a tax attorney."
Gonder said he was so excited when he learned that the winning ticket was purchased in Missouri that "I could barely sleep last night."
"Of the 31 Powerball members, Missouri still ranks second in terms of the number of jackpot winners with 25," Gonder said. "Since the Powerball game began in 1992, we’ve awarded $1.2 billion in Powerball jackpot prizes in Missouri alone."
Shoppers Dean Vollmer of St. Louis and Tim Davis of Anaconda, Mo. said they bought lottery tickets regularly, but had never won more than a few dollars. Asked to dream big, Davis said at first he didn't know what he would do with a multimillion-dollar jackpot. After a few seconds, though, he came up with his dream: "I'd buy a tow truck," he said.
The winner will have a choice:
-- Take the full jackpot in annual payments of $8,466,666 over three decades.
-- Settle for a one-time, up-front winning payout of $120,508,183.
Either way, the sums are before taxes.
As a bonus for selling the jackpot prize, Dierbergs will receive $50,000.
Lottery officials also announced that 20 people had tickets with the first five numbers (but not the winning Powerball number). Each will get $200,000.
Whoever bought the winning ticket beat some steep odds -- one in 146 million.
Although the quarter-billion-dollar jackpot sounds staggering, it falls short of being the biggest ever.
Last Feb. 18, the jackpot hit $365 million. The winners were eight workers at a ConAgra Foods plant in Lincoln, Neb.
And the new jackpot for Saturday night? A mere $15 million.
