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A 53-YEAR-OLD Massachusetts hospital worker stepped forward today to claim the biggest undivided lottery jackpot in US history — a $758.7 (€642) million Powerball prize — after breaking the news to her employer: “I called and told them I will not be coming back”.
“The first thing I want to do is just sit back and relax,” Mavis L Wanczyk told reporters at a news conference.
Wanczyk chose to take a lump-sum payment of $480 (€406) million, or $336 (€284) million after taxes, lottery officials said. Winners who take a gradual payout stand to get more money spread out over several decades.
Even after paying taxes on the winnings, Wanczyk is worth more than some small countries such as Micronesia, which has a gross domestic product of $322 (€272) million, or the Pacific islands of Palau, with a GDP of $293 (€248) million, according to 2016 figures from the World Bank.
The previous evening, she recalled, she was leaving work with a firefighter and remarked, “It’s never going to be me. It’s just a pipe dream that I’ve always had.”
Then she read the number on her ticket and realised she had won.
Wanczyk worked for 32 years at Mercy Medical Center in Springfield in western Massachusetts, she said.
About a month ago, she shared a post on Facebook joking that she needed a vacation. “And by vacation,’” the post read, “I mean I need to move away and find a new job. On a beach. With rum.”
Largest ever on a single ticket
The jackpot is the largest ever won with a single ticket. It is the second-largest US lottery prize, ahead of a $656 (€555) million Mega Millions prize won by three people in 2012. But last night’s big prize is still dwarfed by a $1.6 (€1.3) billion Powerball jackpot divvied up between three winners in January 2016.
Wanczyk has two adult children, a daughter and a son.
Massachusetts Treasurer Deb Goldberg said she offered advice to the family about being careful with their newfound wealth.
“A lot of people will be coming at them with all sorts of things,” Goldberg told reporters.
I highly encourage them to find very, very good lawyers and advisers and think very, very carefully about how they are going to manage their assets.
The announcement that a winner had come forward came after a turbulent morning in which lottery officials initially misidentified not only the shop that sold the winning ticket, but the town.
The lottery corrected the site where the single winning ticket was sold to Chicopee, Massachusetts. Overnight, it had mistakenly announced the winning ticket was sold at a shop in Watertown, just outside Boston.
But shortly before 8am, the lottery said it had made a mistake, and that the winning ticket was sold at the Pride Station & Store in Chicopee, about halfway across the state.
Massachusetts Lottery Executive Director Michael Sweeney said officials were manually recording the names of the retailers that sold the winning ticket and transcribed it incorrectly.
Sweeney issued an apology for the confusion created by the error, but said lottery staff remained thrilled that a jackpot winning ticket and two $1 million (€847,000) winning tickets were sold in Massachusetts — one of those at the Watertown location.
Mike Donatelli, a spokesman for the Pride Station & Store in Chicopee, said the shop was notified shortly before 8am that it had actually sold the record jackpot ticket.
Sweeney said the store will pocket $50,000 (€42,000) for selling the jackpot winner. Bob Bolduc, owner of the Pride store chain, said the proceeds would be donated to local charities.
“The phone started ringing at 8 o’clock,” Bolduc said.
We were as surprised as everybody else. We’re happy for our customer, and we’re happy for the charities.
The lucky numbers from last night’s drawing were 6, 7, 16, 23 and 26, and the Powerball number was 4.
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Gorgeous looking woman, wonder is she married?
@Emmet Dillane:
@Emmet Dillane: if it was a dude he would be just as attractive
Anyone with that much money is attractive
Beauty is in the eye of the winning lottery ticket holder.
Why would you go public about it.
@….: that’s what I was thinking but maybe it’s not an option.
@….:
@….: you have too it’s in the T,s and C,s
@….: certain states over here, you have to go public. Others let you remain anonymous
$144,000,000 in tax, wow
@Sean Higgins: Murica
Delighted for her, cutos!
Can you cash a cheque with exclamation marks on it? If so that’s how I’m filling in mine from now on!!
Good for her
Best of luck to her. Her dream came true
That’s nearly as much as Hillary Clinton wasted trying to become President! LOL
It’d be very interesting to hear back from her in a year or 3 to see if she’d trade back to her old life…. I’m sure she’ll enjoy splashing cash for a while but….
Good for her and well done to the shop for donating it. If it were me I’d stay working, then again that’s just me cause I’m just too good at digging holes and kicking dirt… Hence my name.
define ‘working’ when you are 400mil in the black?
I was only joking about the divorce ,honestly
AP once again fails to understand difference between capital and income.
Think I love money
The lotto in the US is taxed to the hill… She will have to pay a slice to the tax man now?
@Alois Irlmaier: She won’t be short either way!
Well done to her. f**k the notice period!
@oliverjumelle: but what if she needs a reference?!
@oliverjumelle: She works in a medical center, leaving them short staffed before they have a chance to replace her will only affect the patients…
@Rochelle: get a grip
@Rochelle: yeah I’d say that was the first thing that crossed her mind when she realised she won a few hundred million dollars but I’d be Pretty sure they will manage just fine without her
she could buy Neymar with that kind of money
But will she be happy?
What a nice surprise for the woman and her family .Her Job , I am sure that if this happened to you , you would do exactly the same take the day off , no doubt , there was film crew waiting for her plus the lottery people all want to hand out good advice … I’m sure going into work was not on her mind … …
I bet by tomorrow’s post the postman will be bringing around mail vans of begging letters etc …. … Allow the lady to sit enjoy the thrill ,make her own mind up on how she would like to change her life and her family , maybe even some charities …
Sadly this world looks as it, on monetary value , her job , how she is going to spend it …. Be happy , write your own list , imagine if you won the lottery this week end , then see how you would feel ,would you like it to change your life or help it change others and how would you go about doing that …… .? Im sure , even if it was big sum of money you would like a few days off, just to take stock … It’s only money, ….. I wish her luck happiness contentment in how ever she likes or will spend it …
Hey?
@Colm O’keefe: Jude….
The only charity I would ever give a penny to would be the one I set up. After what was going on over here and seeing what various charities pay to their executives and staff I am genuinely surprised that most of them didn’t go belly-up already.
Oh wait… They can’t run out of money as most of them are getting tax money from the government.
have your say