$87 million ticket sold in Plymouth Meeting
Who is Pennsylvania's newest millionaire? Two Powerball tickets - one bought at Plymouth Meeting Mall, another in Delaware - struck it rich Saturday night.
Who is Pennsylvania's newest millionaire?
Two Powerball tickets - one bought at Plymouth Meeting Mall, another in Delaware - struck it rich Saturday night.
The jackpot was worth $174.4 million, if taken in yearly payouts, or $93 million cash.
The ticket purchased at the customer-service counter at Plymouth Meeting Mall was the state's fourth Powerball winner in just seven months.
"We're extremely excited about this," mall spokeswoman Melonie Messina said. "This is a phenomenal thing just to happen in the area."
Another reason to be thrilled: The mall will get $100,000 for selling the winner. The funds will be used for improvements to the mall, which is undergoing a $100 million renovation, Messina said.
Which employee sold the ticket and when had yet to be determined as of yesterday evening, but the seller was one of four who work at the customer-service counter.
Gabrielle Eckert, a customer-service manager, could have sold it.
"If it was me, I'm excited," said Eckert, 25, of Allentown. "I'm not usually a lucky person, so just knowing I might have touched the ticket that was worth however many millions is exciting."
Mall workers also are eagerly anticipating who could have the winning ticket, Messina said. Could it be a mall employee, a regular shopper, or one of the construction workers handling the renovation? Messina wondered.
[March 3 update: In Delaware, the state's first winning Powerball ticket since 2004 was sold at Benbow's Package Store in Dover. The store will get a $10,000, because Delaware sells far fewer tickets than Pennsylvania does.]
Each winner's pretax windfall would be $87.2 million if paid out over 29 years, or about $46.6 million as a lump sum.
That's the luckiest strike in Philadelphia or its surrounding counties since 2004, when a Bucks County ticket paid off $110 million cash for Steve and Kristine White of Skillman, N.J., north of Princeton.
The payoff means that Mega Millions' $212 million jackpot - up for grabs tonight - becomes by far the biggest prize around. Mega Millions is played in New Jersey, Maryland, and 10 other states. Powerball's annuity jackpot will start over again, at $20 million, or $10.7 million cash, for tomorrow's drawing.
Saturday's Powerball numbers were 3, 16, 20, 42 and 58, with a Powerball of 7. The Power Play multiplier was 5.
At Plymouth Meeting Mall yesterday, Beatrice Kennedy purchased Powerball tickets from the customer-service counter where she plays the lottery every week.
She had tickets for Saturday's jackpot but said she was not the mystery winner.
"Somebody from here won?" said Kennedy, a retired social-services case manager from Plymouth Meeting, "Oh, my God, I got chills."
Pennsylvania's share of Saturday's top prize is larger than the three others awarded to Keystone Staters since August.
Myrna and Thomas Shearer of York, Pa., elected to take $30.2 million in cash after hitting Oct. 29.
Twenty-two Philadelphia postal workers split the $10.3 million in cash they won Oct. 3.
The Barrie Edwards family of Willow Street, Lancaster County, cashed in to the tune of $42.5 million in the Aug. 2 drawing.
Saturday's win is the biggest in Pennsylvania since Florence Ayers of Butler County bought a ticket worth $93 million cash on Dec. 8, 2004.
The last time Delaware won the top prize in Powerball, the jackpot was gigantic - $116.9 million cash. Thirty-three coworkers from Seaford split that prize, which was hit Oct. 9, 2004.
For more lottery information, go to www.philly.com/philly/news/lottery.
