Someone definitely has the golden ticket — the ticket for the enormous $758.7 million dollar Powerball jackpot, that is. The lucky winner is, according to an eagle-eyed convenience store owner, a middle-aged woman (Update: Her name is Mavis L. Wanczyk, and she appeared at a press conference) who walked into a a convenience store in Chicopee, Massachusetts just yesterday. Now, the Associated Press reports that she has come forward to claim her prize.
There was some confusion at first about where exactly that first prize ticket was sold. Initial reports had it pinpointed as Watertown, rather than Chicopee. That’s lead to highs and lows for area gas station owners, who themselves get a not-insubstantial windfall if they are the ones to sell a winning ticket. Bob Bolduc, who himself built the Pride Station & Store on Montgomery Street in Chicopee, is the lucky fellow who landed a $50,000 cut of the winnings. He says he’s going to donate much of it to charity.
Kamaljeet Kaur, the owner of the nearby Watertown store who thought for a moment she had sold the grand prize ticket, will get only $10,000 for selling a $1 million dollar lotto ticket. Kaur is “a little sad now,” she told reporters, but “its OK, it’s still something.” She and her husband had hoped to start a college fund for their children with the $50,000 bonus but can still start saving on a smaller scale with what they did win.
As for the proud new millionaire who walked into Pride Station & Store at about 2:30 yesterday, her name has yet to be released. But the mystery woman’s neighbors might want to watch out. Statistics show that not only do lottery winnings often lead to ironic bankruptcies, neighbors can get pulled in to a web of financial woe, too, as they try to compete with or live vicariously through their acquaintance’s sudden wealth.
(Via Associated Press & Boston Herald)