Fourth Largest PowerBall Jackpot Ticket Sold In New York City
NEW YORK (CBSNewYork/AP) – Half of the fourth largest PowerBall jackpot in U.S. history belongs to whoever has winning ticket sold at a Harlem bodega.
The lucky winners will split the $687.8 million jackpot after the numbers pulled came up 8, 12, 13, 19, 27, and the Powerball was 4. There were two tickets sold that matched all six numbers, one in a rural Iowa town and the other at the West Harlem Deli Corp.
The new New York multi-millionaire stands to get $198.1 million if they take the cash option, reports CBS2's Clark Fouraker.
"That's a lot of money, a lot of money," said Harlem resident Jada Culber. "It's amazing that it came from here too."
Jose Espinosa and his father own the West Harlem Deli. While helping a steady stream of customers Sunday, the 41-year-old Espinosa joked that he knows he sold the lucky ticket because always working: "I'm always here. I live here." But he doesn't know who bought it.
The store manager got the call about 6:30 a.m. that his store sold the winning ticket. He says his store has handed out five $1,000 prizes before, but never a jackpot this big.
"This is crazy, I don't know what happened," said general manager Carlos Diaz. "Somebody hit over here. It's good."
Diaz told CBS2 he believes the winner is a local and hopes some of the money stays in this community.
"I would love to see someone be able to put funds back into it, attention back into it," he said. "I hope it is someone who is considered to be an old Harlem-ite as opposed to someone newer. It would just be a great story if the wealth went to someone who was from here."
Two tickets sold in Nassau County and two in New Jersey matched five numbers. Those winners will take home a $1 million prize.
The other shared jackpot winning ticket was sold at Casey's Convenience Store in Redfield, Iowa, a rural community of about 800 people roughly 35 miles west of Des Moines. Lottery officials said the ticket sold in Iowa marks the largest lottery prize ever won in the state.
Like in New York, no one has come forward yet the say they beat the 1 in 292.2 million odds.
The PowerBall jackpot has been building over the past 21 drawings where no one had all the winning numbers. The last winning ticket that took home the jackpot was also sold in New York back in August.
The drawing came four days after someone won a $1.54 billion Mega Millions jackpot, which marked the nation's second-largest lottery prize ever. That ticket was sold in South Carolina, where lottery winners can remain anonymous.
"I could see them not coming forward only because I understand a lot of people don't want attention from it," said Culber. "They want to keep it private and I get that."
Saturday's PowerBall jackpot was originally estimated at $750 million but worked out to $687.8 million by the time of the drawing. That's the annuity total, which would be paid out over 29 years. The cash value, or lump sum, is $396.2 million before taxes.
(© Copyright 2018 CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved. The Associated Press contributed to this report.)