The Acme store on Route 9 in Little Egg Harbor, where one of two winning New Jersey Powerball tickets was sold. (Bob Bielk)
A group of 16 Ocean County coworkers are celebrating after they discovered they held one of two winning New Jersey Powerball tickets in a jackpot that reached $448 million, reports NBC 4 New York.
The office pool picked up its winning ticket at an Acme on Route 9 in Little Egg Harbor. The winners have not officially come forward to claim their prize, but several sources say the group works in the same department at Ocean County Vehicle Maintenance Department in Toms River.
“We are thrilled,” Freeholder Director John Kelly told the Asbury Park Press. “It’s good to see these hard-working, blue-collar employees win this money that’s really going to be a life-changer for them.”
Their winning ticket, if taken in cash as a lump sum, is worth $86 million. Federal taxes, however, will knock the prize money down to $58.3 million and another three percent in New Jersey taxes will leave the grand total at $56.5 million. After splitting the prize between all 16 workers, they will each receive $3.5 million. Not bad!
Lottery officials said Acme and the Super Stop & Shop in South Brunswick that sold the other New Jersey winning ticket would each get $30,000. Phil Weber, director of the Acme Markets, said that the store would donate $10,000 in gift cards to local charities, who serve many people who are still out of homes nine months after Hurricane Sandy.
“After the bad luck of last year you can say that our luck has turned,” Carole Hedinger, the New Jersey Lottery’s executive director, said Thursday.
While the other New Jersey Powerball winner has yet to come forward, Paul White, of Ham Lake, was introduced Thursday afternoon at a news conference at the Minnesota State Lottery’s headquarters as the third lucky winner.