The Latest: Clerk just happy to have touched winning ticket

The 20-year-old store clerk at the Pride Station & Store in Chicopee (CHIH’-kuh-pee) sold the ticket to the 53-year-old hospital worker who came up with the winning combination of numbers.

Merced says she couldn’t believe it and got “really nervous” after hearing she sold the ticket to Mavis L. Wanczyk (WAHN’-zihk), a regular customer at the store. She says she’s “just really happy for her” and hopes she enjoys her winnings.

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4:05 p.m.

Massachusetts State Lottery officials say the winner of the $758.7 million Powerball jackpot bought a total of five tickets.

Fifty-three-year-old Chicopee (CHIH’-kuh-pee) resident Mavis L. Wanczyk (WAHN’-zihk) bought three tickets with numbers she chose along with two computer-generated tickets. She got them all from the Pride Station & Store in Chicopee.

The winning Powerball ticket was one that Wanczyk picked herself, using a combination of family birthdays and her lucky number, four.

Lottery officials say she chose to take a lump sum payment of $480 million, or $336 million after taxes. It’s the largest grand prize won by a single lottery ticket in U.S. history.

Wanczyk worked at a hospital for 32 years but quit when she won.

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2:45 p.m.

Massachusetts’ treasurer says she offered advice to the winner of the $758.7 million Powerball jackpot and her family about being careful with their newfound wealth.

Deb Goldberg tells reporters on Thursday that “a lot of people will be coming at them with all sorts of things.” She says she encouraged them to find very good lawyers and advisers and to think carefully about how they’re going to manage their money.

Fifty-three-year-old Mavis L. Wanczyk (WAHN’-zihk), of Chicopee (CHIH’-kuh-pee), won the jackpot.

On her Facebook page Thursday afternoon, someone had already written to her asking for help for his family to pay off a $100,000 house.

It’s the largest grand prize won by a single lottery ticket in U.S. history.

Wanczyk worked at a hospital for 32 years but quit when she won.

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2 p.m.

The Massachusetts woman who won the massive $758.7 million Powerball jackpot has quit her job at the hospital where she worked for three decades and says she wants to relax.

Fifty-three-year-old Mavis L. Wanczyk (WAHN’-zick), of Chicopee, worked at Mercy Medical Center for 32 years.

She says she used birthdays to choose some of the numbers when she bought the winning Powerball ticket on Wednesday at a store in Chicopee.

Lottery officials say she chose to take a lump sum payment of $480 million, or $336 million after taxes.

About $120 million of the tax revenue will go to the federal government, and $20 million will go to Massachusetts.

Massachusetts lottery officials say they sold $13 million in total ticket sales for the drawing, with $8.4 million of that on Wednesday.

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1:30 p.m.

A Massachusetts hospital worker has claimed the $758.7 million Powerball jackpot, and says she always thought winning the lottery was “a pipe dream.”

Fifty-three-year-old Mavis L. Wanczyk (WAHN’-zick), of Chicopee, says she was leaving work at night with a Chicopee firefighter, and they were discussing Powerball.

That’s when she realized she won. She says he followed her home to make sure she got there safely.

Wanczyk says the first thing she wants to do is sit back and relax. She says she has called work to let them know she won’t be back.

Wanczyk has two adult children, a daughter and a son.

Lottery officials say she chose to take a lump sum payment of $480 million, or $336 million after taxes.

It’s the largest grand prize won by a single lottery ticket in U.S. history.

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Noon

The head of the Massachusetts lottery says the winner of the $758.7 million Powerball jackpot has come forward to claim the prize.

Michael Sweeney, the lottery’s executive director, says the winner will be introduced at 1 p.m. at lottery headquarters. All he would say about the winner is that it is an individual woman.

A store in Chicopee, Massachusetts, sold the only ticket that won the jackpot. It’s the largest grand prize won by a single lottery ticket in U.S. history.

Sweeney also apologized for the lottery’s erroneous announcement early Thursday that the winning ticket had been sold at a store in Watertown. He blamed it on human error.

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10:30 a.m.

The owner of the store that sold the lone winning Powerball ticket says he’s donating the store’s $50,000 prize to several local charities.

Bob Bolduc owns the Pride store chain. One of its stores, in Chicopee, Massachusetts, sold the only ticket that won the $758.7 million jackpot. It’s the largest grand prize won by a single lottery ticket in U.S. history.

He says once they heard that the winning ticket was sold Wednesday afternoon, store workers looked it up on the surveillance video and believe the winner was a middle-aged woman.

Bolduc says they’re happy for the customer, and happy for the charities.

The lottery says the winner still had not come forward as of midmorning Thursday.

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10 a.m.

The head of the Massachusetts State Lottery says a transcription error led the organization to wrongly identify the store that sold the lone winning Powerball ticket.

In a statement issued Thursday morning, lottery Executive Director Michael Sweeney says officials were manually recording the names of the retailers that sold the winning ticket for the $758.7 million jackpot, as well as two tickets that won $1 million prizes. He says they transcribed it incorrectly.

Sweeney issued an apology for the confusion created by the error, but said lottery staff remained thrilled that a jackpot winning ticket and two $1 million winning tickets were sold in Massachusetts.

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9 a.m.

The Massachusetts store that sold the winning Powerball ticket was initially told it sold a $1 million ticket, not the only ticket that won the $758.7 million jackpot.

Mike Donatelli, a spokesman for the Pride Station & Store in Chicopee, Massachusetts, says they were told shortly before 8 a.m. that the store had actually sold that ticket. The jackpot is the largest grand prize won by a single lottery ticket in U.S. history.

Donatelli says the founder of the chain, Bob Bolduc, plans to hold news conferences at 10 a.m. and at noon. The store is part of a chain that operates in western Massachusetts and northern Connecticut.

The Chicopee store will receive $50,000 for selling the winning ticket.

Lottery officials had initially said a different store, near Boston, had sold the winning ticket. That store actually sold a ticket that won $1 million.

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8: 30 a.m.

The error by the Massachusetts State Lottery over which store sold the lone winning Powerball ticket is being blamed on nerves.

Michael Sweeney, the lottery’s executive director, tells WBZ-AM they had a “couple of excited people at 1 o’clock in the morning” but said if there’s any blame to be placed, the buck stops with him.

The lottery initially said a convenience store in Watertown had sold the winning ticket. A few hours later, it announced it had made a mistake, and that the winning ticket was sold across the state at the Pride Station & Store in Chicopee, in Western Massachusetts.

Sweeney says the lottery had not yet heard from the winner.

He said the Chicopee store will receive $50,000 for selling the winning ticket, he said.

He said the store in Watertown did sell a ticket that won a $1 million prize.

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8 a.m.

Massachusetts State Lottery officials have corrected the site where the single winning ticket for the Powerball $758.7 million jackpot was sold to Chicopee, not Watertown.

The Massachusetts State Lottery had announced around 2:30 a.m. Thursday that a convenience store in Watertown, near Boston, had sold the winning ticket.

But shortly before 8 a.m., the lottery said it had made a mistake, and that the winning ticket was sold across the state at the Pride Station & Store in Chicopee, in Western Massachusetts.

The lottery did not say how the error was made .

It said the store in Watertown did sell a ticket that won a $1 million prize.

The Associated Press

by Canadian Press

The Latest: Clerk just happy to have touched winning ticket

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