Dianna Ross
Posted on 04/23/2010 5:12:43 PM PDT by Libloather
Store clerk is winner of $258.5M Powerball lottery jackpot
Apr. 23, 2010, 7:56 a.m.
The winning ticket for the biggest jackpot in Missouri history was sold at a convenience store in Marshall, and a store official said Thursday that the winner is a clerk who works at the store.
Lottery officials announced Thursday that a Powerball ticket purchased at the city's Break Time convenience store hit all six numbers in Wednesday night's drawing. The $258.5 million jackpot is the biggest ever won in Missouri, and the 10th-biggest Powerball jackpot ever.
Although the Lottery is waiting to verify the ticket before announcing the name of the winner, a Break Time official said the Lottery's communications director had left the store Thursday morning with an employee who bought the winning ticket.
"Gary Gonder with the Lottery scooped him off and is taking him to Jefferson City," said Jackie Maxwell, general manager of the Missouri-based Break Time convenience store chain. "The Missouri Lottery looked at his ticket, confirmed his numbers and took him away."
Maxwell was at the store doing a telephone interview with The Associated Press when the employee walked in and said he had won.
"This is just absolutely amazing," Maxwell said as cheering erupted in the background. "I'm so excited for him. I'm thrilled for him."
Lottery spokeswoman Susan Goedde confirmed that the ticket had been bought at that store and said it could take up to a day to verify the winning ticket.
The winner has been identified as Chris Shaw of Marshall, Mo. Shaw is in his 20s and has been working at the store for only a few months before striking it rich.
"At this point he's trying to absorb that it's even real," she said in a later phone conversation with AP. "He's just a great guy, a good employee. When you think of a large winner like this, everyone likes to see that the person who won is somebody like (him). He's an awesome guy."
Natasha Woody said that she sold the winning ticket to her co-worker Wednesday night, adding that at the time he joked about having the winning ticket and told Woody that if he won he would give her $2 million.
"It's just the fact that I sold it," said Woody. "I got to touch the ticket."
Other customers said they wished they had purchased a ticket on Wednesday. One person said, "That could have been me, but I'm so excited for him."
Woody doesn't know if Shaw will take the joking promise seriously, but she said, "Honestly I think he'll do something, because he's that kind of guy."
Store manager Debbie Rogers said that Shaw had been a truck driver before working at the store. "He stopped driving trucks so he can be with his family," said Shaw.
He had been making $7.25 an hour as a clerk. Rogers said he had been facing some tough times.
"Nobody deserves it more than him," she said.
The winner can choose between a lump-sum pretax payment of roughly $124.8 million or take the jackpot in 30 payments over 29 years.
The winning numbers were 11-34-41-49-55, Powerball 20. The Power Play number was 2.
Break Time will receive $50,000 for selling the winning ticket.
The prize goes to an estimated $20 million for Saturday.
Maxwell said there have been several other lottery winners at Break Time stores in the past couple of years, including a $2.5 million Missouri Lotto ticket in St. Joseph, $1.5 million Lotto winner in Jefferson City and $1 million scratch-off ticket winner in Mexico. Mo.
Thanks!
There are some really decent people here that aren’t what we’d call “well groomed”.
Perhaps I’m lost in the past, but folks like this guy were the norm not so many years ago.
LOL! Is it me, or does that guy look terrifed, or maybe just suprised, that a woman like that is stroking his man boobs.
And around here, there are many good people who would never consider accepting charity to have their teeth replaced.
Times are changing here as well and it's a shame to see.
“$28.96 in his bank account and a stack of utility bills”
How much do you want to bet that in 5 years his bank account is just as poor and his stack of bills is even bigger?
Dianna Ross
I am truly amazed at your clairvoyance. Tell me, do you judge all strangers who you have never met in such a negative way?
Here in Iowa, where the Powerball lottery is headquartered, a clerk checks a ticket for wining numbers by running it through the lottery machine. The machine makes noise and a voice let’s out a “YooHoo!” if the ticket is a winner (even $2)
In order to scam the system, the clerk would have to use sleight of hand to run a non-winning ticket through the machine while the customer is standing there.
A lot of the lottery players at the tobacco shop near my home aren't exactly the internet or newspaper types. You'd be amazed at the number that come in to have the clerk "check" their ticket. I suspect that with a huge jackpot that is widely publicized before hand a lot of people that aren't regular players will buy a ticket and assume they need to have it validated at the source.
I would go with bar fight.
I can go along with Dianna Ross - not “pretty” without the make up but natural enough.
Madonna - Didn’t realize she’d had cheek implants. No other explanation for that. I think the doc overdid it a bit. Perhaps a chin implant too?? She needs some blowfish lips to keep up with her cheeks and chin.
This would be a good reason for having those automatic ticket readers in every place that sells those tickets — so you just put it under the scanner and it says if you’re a winner or not — no human intervention required ... :-)
I don’t know about your state, but I’ve seen them in other places before and that’s the way to go, I would say. It only takes a mere few seconds and you’ve got a “read” on the ticket and you know whether it’s a winner or not...
To me it’s a curious social phenomenon to observe...watching a lot of the same people come in every morning to buy a string of tickets while I get my coffee and breakfast. Most of the time I’ve noticed the clerk will return the non-winning ticket to the patron.
I think they are scarier looking than the lottery winner.
Wow....Diana Ross is turning into looter guy...
You guys are CLEARLY smarter than Texas. Good for you.
My guess is that he rear-ended somebody at a fairly low speed, and knocked them out on his own steering wheel.
“We’re sorry sir, but your ticket was misplaced and we cannot verify it as a winning ticket. Should it be found in the future we will contact you. If you wish we will provide you with another ticket at no cost to you.
Who knows? It may be the big winner! Best wishes.
Yours, State Lottery Commission”
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