Six Willey's Store Workers Full Of Plans After Winning At Powerball

Monday, April 10, 2006 posted 02:29 AM EDT

It was no April Fools' prank when Cynthia Osgood, a meat case manager at The Willey's Store in Greensboro, contacted five of her co-workers and told them they had won Powerball.

Not sure whether they should believe her, Osgood's fellow employees came down to the store on Sunday to check the ticket, which they had purchased as a group the day before.

Sure enough, a $200,000 prize was theirs to claim.

"It didn't click at first, not until I actually looked at all the papers together," said Samantha Hall, of Hardwick, who confessed to being a little skeptical about the ticket, considering it happened the day after April 1.

Already, Hall said, she has bought a car and has plans to do some work on her house.

The winning ticket was only the second ticket purchased by the group, which had bought six tickets on Saturday and six the week before. It was the first time two of them had even played the lottery.

Sarah Cabell, a produce manager at Willey's, said it was only the second ticket she had ever bought, the first being with the group a week ago.

Cabell, also of Hardwick, said that, like Hall, she didn't believe it at first.

She said she and her husband, Lawrence, have been building a house for about 10 years and were looking forward to using the money to get a jump on things.

The same goes for grocery manager Steve Collier, also of Hardwick, who plans to do some rewiring to his house. The money will come in handy as he and his wife, Karen, are expecting a baby in June and have just put a down payment on a new car.

Collier said he's played the lottery off and on, but really started to get into it when a lottery terminal was installed inside Willey's in January.

The total winnings, after taxes, came to $23,000.33 each.

All six tickets were machine picked, but the group did not opt for the Power Play option. If they had purchased Power Play, they would have multiplied their winnings to a total of $600,000, according to a statement from the Vermont lottery.

The group kept their tickets in a "lucky envelope" at the store, but when they discovered their good fortune, they entrusted one person to keep the winning ticket overnight before their arrival at the lottery headquarters on Monday morning.

Willey's clerk Ruth Rowell said it was fun going to the lottery headquarters in Barre and meeting Alan Yandow, who shook their hands as they each received their checks.

Rowell, of West Glover, said she plans to pay off her credit card, put some new siding on her house, maybe even some new windows, then see what she has left over.

Rowell said she is one of those who likes to play the lottery once in awhile "just for the fun of it." She said she used to play many years ago, but had only started buying tickets again when her co-workers asked if she wanted to join the group.

Tim Whitney, of Hardwick, who works in the hardware portion of Willey's, said he has been playing Powerball since tickets started selling in Vermont around 2003. He said he's won a few dollars here and there, but never anything big.

Whitney's not too sure what he plans to do with the money, but he said he has three children who definitely have some plans.

"We're in a lot of discussion about what to do with it at the moment," he said.

As for Osgood, a Greensboro Bend resident, she said she and her husband, George, are building a camp up in Stannard called the Spruce Moose Campground.

Playing with the group was the first time she had ever played the lottery, Osgood said. Her winning ticket was the second she had ever bought.

The six of them plan to continue playing as a group and, since winning, have attracted a few other participants.

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