Lottery winner collects $200K

Friday, February 24, 2006 posted 05:21 PM EST

EAST KINGSTON - An East Kingston resident is $200,000 richer after matching five winning numbers in the Feb. 11 Powerball.

Roland Vance Leary claimed his prize at the lottery headquarters in Concord on Tuesday. He bought the ticket the week before the drawing at the Route 108 General Store in Newton.

Leary’s phone number is unlisted and lottery officials said they could not reveal his address or phone number, so he could not be reached for comment.

Tracey Smith, manager of the Newton store, was excited when she found out the country store sold a winning ticket.

"It feels awesome because this is a small town, so everybody knows everybody," she said. "We were hoping it was someone who was a regular, but he’s a plumber at Northern Essex (Community College) ... anybody would like to be $200,000 richer."

The store will receive $2,000 for selling that winning ticket.

Leary was "not someone I normally have come in the store, but he happened to be passing by," Smith said.

She convinced Leary to pick up a lottery ticket because the jackpot was $251 million. There were no jackpot winners in the Feb. 11 drawing, which rolled over into last weekend’s $365 million jackpot.

Smith said it took Leary a week to come back to the store and let the staff know he won. "He kind of joked and said he’s got the ticket," she said.

In a press release from the New Hampshire Lottery, Leary said he did not check to see if any of his tickets were winners from the Feb. 11 drawing. On Valentine’s Day, he did look them over to see if they had won anything and at that time, he found out he won $200,000.

Regarding his plans for the money, he said he plans on "putting the money towards his retirement fund."

In late August the Powerball game changed from $100,000 for the second tier prize to $200,000. Since the change there have been several $200,000 prizes sold in New Hampshire.

To win the second tier prize you must match five numbers but not the Powerball number.

As for the general store in Newton, Smith said its share of the money will go towards maintenance, but there are no plans on how to spend it yet. In the 26 years of business, this is the first winning ticket the store has sold.

"We got a lot of great customers; we really do care about our customers," Smith said. "Everybody comes in here because it’s a good old country store."

Since news has spread of the winning ticket sale at the store, Smith said people have been asking her to touch the ticket, hoping she’ll bring them luck as well.

Related Links
	New Hampshire Lottery Results
	Search Past New Hampshire Lottery Winning Numbers