Shreveport Powerball Winner Beats Deadline to Claim $853,496

Saturday, February 25, 2006 posted 11:37 PM EST

The mystery Match-5 Bonus Powerball winner from the Oct. 19, 2005, drawing now has a name! Steve Jones correctly matched the five white ball numbers drawn from the $340 million Powerball drawing and claimed $853,492 at the Louisiana Lottery Corporation's headquarters today.

Jones, a resident of Shreveport, won the typical match-5 prize of $200,000 plus an additional $653,492 from the first-time Match 5 Bonus prize pool. After state and federal taxes were withheld, Jones received $597,447.20.

The ticket was to expire April 17. Winners of the Lottery's draw-style games, such as Powerball, have 180 days of the draw date to claim their prize.

"A friend told me there was an unclaimed Powerball ticket that was sold at the store where I buy my tickets," Jones explained. "I got a mop and broom and swept up under my bed where I knew I had some tickets. I found three and brought them to the store. The last one scanned said I had to go to the Lottery office. I had already thrown some tickets away. I'm glad it wasn't this one." Jones said he plans to continue working at Allied Waste, for now.

He purchased his winning ticket at Thrifty Liquor #6 on Linwood Avenue in Shreveport. The retailer received $8,534.92 or 1 percent of the total prize, as a bonus incentive for selling the winning ticket.

Forty-nine ticket purchasers nationwide shared in the Oct. 19 Match 5 Bonus prize pool of $32 million, including Jones' ticket and two others sold in Gretna and Gray. All Louisiana match-5 winners from this drawing have now claimed their prize.

Added to Powerball in 2002, the Match 5 Bonus prize feature pays a bonus to players who match the five white ball numbers but do not correctly match the red Powerball number when a new record Powerball jackpot is surpassed. The bonus kicked in for the second time during the Feb. 18 record-setting $365 million Powerball drawing in which two tickets sold in Lake Charles and Baton Rouge each won a $667,142 match-5 prize. Those winners claimed their prize earlier this week.

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	Louisiana Lottery Results
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