Winning Powerball ticket sold in Halifax County

Friday, December 01, 2006 posted 11:49 AM EST

RALEIGH -- People across the state have a flurry of questions about this lucky ticket and its unknown $74 million winner. What were the numbers? What store sold the ticket? Most importantly, who won the big money?

“I wish it was me,” said one customer at the C Mini Mart on Poole Road in Raleigh.

That thought was most likely echoed by many North Carolinians.

Our state had its first winning Powerball jackpot ticket and it could have been sold anywhere in the state like Charlotte, Greensboro, or Raleigh.

It was actually in the border county of Halifax. Interstate 95 goes right through it, which means the winner could be from Virginia, New York, Miami, or someone passing through on holiday travel.

North Carolina Education Lottery Executive Director Tom Shaheen says from the money raised for education to the taxes, it's a big day for North Carolina.

“This is like the piece de resistance,” said Shaheen. “This is it. This is it. We've got our big winner. We've made it. We've joined the club with the big boys."

It's that unknown winner who will get the biggest piece of that $74 million pie. He or she will have an option, a lump sum of $36.7 million or the entire $74 million, which includes 30 payments over 29 years ranging from $1.3 million to $4.1 million.

“This is a huge windfall of money that is going to come into someone's life,” Shaheen said.

If it wasn't your lucky day, lottery officials say maybe next time.

Shaheen says they're completing security and operational procedure checks before releasing the location of the store that sold the winning ticket. The winner has 180 days to claim the $74 million in Raleigh at the lottery headquarters.

There were other big winners in the state.

Two tickets that match the first five numbers were also sold in North Carolina and those are worth $200,000 each.

The jackpot goes down to $15 million for Saturday's drawing.

Wednesday's winning Powerball numbers were 2-8-9-12-19 and the Powerball was 25.

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