Powerball winning ticketholders named in Mo.
Updated at 2:52 p.m. ET
DEARBORN, Mo. Cindy Hill, a laid-off office manager who lives in a small town in Missouri, called her husband Thursday with urgent news that would change everything: "We won the lottery."
"What?" he asked.
"We won the lottery," she repeated. But Mark Hill, a 52-year-old mechanic who works at a meat processing plant, is the kind of person who carefully checks the prices for everything he buys, and he needed proof. This is the "Show-Me State" after all.
Once lottery officials learned the Hills' identities Thursday, they were whisked away from their home and kept hidden until Friday's press conference. At a hotel, Mark Hill realized he left some sundries at home and needed to pick up some items.
"I found myself at the store looking at the prices of stuff," he told reporters. "Old habits are hard to break."
He drove to his mother's house, where his wife was waiting with their quick-pick ticket, and confirmed for himself that the numbers matched those drawn for a record Powerball jackpot of nearly $588 million that they'll share with an unknown winner who bought a ticket in Arizona.
Powerball winner caught on tape?
The Arizona ticket might be in the hands of a man in Maryland, who may have been caught on tape when he found out he hit the jackpot, CBS News correspondent Dean Reynolds reports.
Missouri lottery officials officially introduced the Hills as winners Friday in front of reporters and townspeople gathered at the high school in Dearborn, which is about 40 miles north of Kansas City. The announcement was not a surprise. The Hills' name began circulating Thursday, soon after lottery officials said a winning ticket had been sold at a Trex Mart gas station and convenience store on the edge of town.
"I think I'm having a heart attack," Cindy Hill recalled telling her husband on the phone after matching the ticket she bought with the winning numbers.
The Hills chose to take their winnings in a lump sum, not annual payments. Lottery officials estimated the cash payment at about $385 million, or about $192.5 million for each ticket.
The oversized novelty check handed to the Hills on Friday was written in the amount of $293,750,000, but Missouri Lottery spokeswoman Susan Goedde said that after taxes, they will receive about $136.5 million.
"We're still stunned by what's happened," said Cindy Hill, 51, who was laid off in June 2010. "It's surreal."
The couple has three grown sons and a 6-year-old daughter they adopted from China five years ago. They said they are now considering a second adoption with their winnings, and they plan to help other relatives, including their grandchildren and nieces and nephews, pay for college. They're planning vacations, and their daughter, Jaiden, wants a pony. Mark Hill has his eye on a red Camaro.
More immediately, they're preparing for "a pretty good Christmas" and anticipating an onslaught of requests for financial help.
"When it's that big of a Powerball, you're going to get people coming out of the woodwork, some of them might not be too sane," Cindy Hill said. "We have to protect our family and grandkids."
The jackpot was the second-largest in U.S. history and set off a nationwide buying frenzy, with tickets at one point selling at nearly 130,000 per minute. The other winning ticket was sold at 4 Sons Food Store in Fountain Hills near Phoenix. No one has come forward with it yet, lottery officials said.
Before Wednesday's drawing, the jackpot had rolled over 16 consecutive times without someone hitting the jackpot.
Myron Anderson, pastor of the Baptist Church in nearby Camden Point, said he heard Thursday that the Hills had won the huge prize. Anderson said he has known Mark Hill since they attended high school together.
"He's a really nice guy, and I know his wife, and they have this nice little adopted daughter that they went out of their way to adopt," Anderson said. Funeral services for Hill's father were at the Baptist church, but the family attends church elsewhere, he said.
"I hope it's good news for them," Anderson said. "I've heard awful horror stories about people who get all that money in their lap and how everybody treats them, and if you don't mind me saying, I mean just the fact that the press is going to be after them."
Kevin Bryan, a lifelong Dearborn resident, said the only other local lottery winner he could remember was a farmer who won about $100,000 in scratch-off game years ago "and bought himself a combine."
In a Mega Millions drawing in March, three ticket buyers shared a $656 million jackpot, the largest lottery payout of all time.
Popular on CBSNews.com
- Oklahoma tornado victim search efforts winding down
- Children rescued from two elementary schools in Oklahoma 19 Photos
- Deadliest U.S. tornadoes 10 Photos
- Tornado's destructive path 17 Photos
- Up-close video of Moore, Okla., tornado Play Video
- Oklahoma tornado recovery grinds on amid grim scenes 179 Comments
- Oklahoma tornado as seen by storm chasers Play Video
- Twisters touch down in the Midwest 13 Photos
2. Should have spoken to an attorney first
3. They think they can stay in their house and live the same? Crazy...ask any winner and they will tell you everyone around them changes whether for want of $$ or hate of them winning. MOVE
4. Diconect phone and get a cell phone that is not in their name
THe current methods they are using might be a sure sign of the money being gone in 10 years due to someone biling it out of them and all the loans they are about to make to "friends" and "family"
Anyone who ASKED would pretty much by definition not be one of them.
(First)Don't let the old habbits die... keep looking at prices.
(Second)Take the lump sum... now! Taxes are going up in your bracket, but capital gains won't increase as much or as rapidly as income tax.
(Third)Buy the Camaro and have a party, but otherwise hold the trigger on spending anything. Don't make any donations or give any gifts. You'll have plenty of time to be generous after the euphoria subsides.
(Fourth) Hire a well respected wealth manager (remember, if they come to you, you don't want them) from one of the big firms, and against his/her best judgement put 30 million in gold. With the rest, diversify diversify diversify. I like commodities and blue chips. Long term and safe is what you want, for now. Basically, you want to put your money to work so you don't have to think about it for awhile.
(Finally)Book a Grand Duplex suite on the Queen Mary 2 for a 120 day World Voyage. Take with you every book you ever wanted to read, a Leica M9, and your Centurion Card (getting this should have been its own step). The trip will cost about a million dollars (more, depending on how much time you spend in London before setting sail haha), but the sojourn and the perspective you'll gain are priceless.
The people who say that money doesn't buy happiness are the same people who argue about whether the chicken or the egg came first. These aren't real questions, and there are no answers. Happiness is not for sale at any price, it must be sought and earned, but having money can provide the freedom to turn the search into a grand adventure. Welcome to a bold new world.
http://superofficialnews.com/arizonas-588-million-powerball-winner-comes-forward/