Winner of $15 million Powerball steps forward in Topeka

Tuesday, October 03, 2006 posted 12:07 PM EDT

TOPEKA, Kan. --A government worker and grandfather from the Topeka area stepped forward Monday to claim the $15 million Powerball jackpot from Wednesday's drawing.

The man, who under state law can remain anonymous, chose to take a cash lump-sum payment of $7.17 million instead of the entire amount over 29 years. After taxes, he took home a little more than $5 million.

"I'm now referring to my life as BP (Before Powerball) and AP (After Powerball)," he said. "Last Tuesday I was worried about how I was going to come up with the money to repair the leaky pipes in my old house and put new tires on my vehicle. That was BP. Now I have the AP attitude of, 'Who needs new tires? I can just buy a new vehicle.'"

The winner said he bought the Quick Pick ticket -- with the winning combination 23-28-33-35-49-16 -- at Dillons 64, a Topeka convenience store. The store, which sold a scratch-off Run the Table ticket worth $75,000 last week, will receive a $10,000 bonus from the Kansas Lottery.

The man said he has grown children and grandchildren and said he plans to use the money to travel, help his kids and plan a family reunion at "some exotic place that we couldn't have afforded before."

He said he also plans to continue working, although he said he might retire earlier than he had planned.

The Powerball game includes Maine and 29 other states and the District of Columbia.

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