News

Actions

Woman who won $1 million in Walton: I'm shocked

Posted at 11:47 PM, Jan 13, 2016
and last updated 2016-01-15 00:19:14-05

CINCINNATI -- If you're reading this, you probably didn't win the Powerball jackpot Wednesday night. That person bought their ticket in Chino Hills, California, at a 7-Eleven store in the Los Angeles suburb.

But there was someone in the Tri-State holding a seven-figure slip of paper.

Linda Windey, an upstate New York resident visiting with family in Ohio, bought a winning $1 million ticket in Walton, Kentucky. She claimed it Thursday morning in front of a massive crowd.

She said, while standing in a packed news conference just after 10 a.m., she checked her numbers at about 2:30 a.m. after getting off work at a temporary job, was "shocked," and woke up her family members to check that she was right.

"I think they were upset I woke them up, actually," Windey said.

Windey said she wanted to pass on some of her good fortune and went to donate blood after the press conference.

Amber Hall, the manager at the store where Windey bought the ticket, said they were also "shocked" by the win. She's been with the company 11 years and never had a big win like this.

"It's been crazy with the news crews... and the phone calls and lottery coming in," Hall said.

Walton, Kentucky was among the three cities in the commonwealth where a $1 million ticket was sold. The other two tickets sold in Hazard and Paducah, Kentucky.

Kentucky also had five winners of the game's $50,000 prize. The only local $50,000 ticket sold in Florence, Kentucky. The others sold in Mt. Sterling, Harrodsburg, Benton and Hazard, Kentucky.

DON'T MISS: Winning the lottery could ruin your life

The Ohio Lottery said the state had three $1 million tickets, just like Kentucky. But whoever bought the tickets got them far outside Greater Cincinnati: They were sold at a Speedway in Centerville, at Erieview Towers News in Cleveland and at Broadway Food Center in Toledo. Those winners have six months to claim their prizes.

Wednesday's drawing was the first time someone hit all six numbers on the Powerball since the beginning of November. The odds to win were 1 in 292.2 million.

Because there was a winner in the drawing, that means Saturday's jackpot will drop to $40 million, instead of what lottery officials said would have been at least $2 billion.

The total jackpot set a U.S. record of $1.6 billion. Here are the winning numbers from Wednesday’s jackpot:

4 - 8 - 19 - 27 - 34

The Powerball was:

10