This past week, the country was swept into Powerball frenzy, with the jackpot reaching $448 million. It turned out three winning tickets were sold—one in Minnesota and two in NJ. The Minnesota winner emerged but the NJ winners haven't yet. But the Ocean County Freeholder Director told NBC 4 New York that a group of county employees—16 of them—had a lottery pool and bought one of the winning tickets in Little Egg Harbor.
The workers are employed at the Ocean County Vehicle Maintenance Department. Their supervisor, Jim Pine, said, "I couldn’t be more happy for them. They’re a group of wonderful, hardworking people, and them showing up for work today ought to tell you something." The other winning ticket was sold at the South Brunswick Stop & Shop, which made a huge cake saying, "Congratulations Powerball Winner" in hopes of luring the winner back. Both stores will each get $30,000 for selling the winning the tickets.
As for the Minnesota winner, he stepped forward yesterday. Project engineer Paul White got an enormous check for $149 million, which he'll take in a lump sum of $86 million before taxes ($58.3 million after taxes). He called it "crazy" and added, "I think a lot of good things are going to come out of this, for not only my family and friends but for random people. I don’t want to work for anybody else for the rest of my life for a paycheck."
