Montvale Wegmans sells $847M Powerball ticket

Well, someone in New Jersey is a whole lot richer tonight. All right, a winning Powerball ticket worth $847 million was sold in Bergen County. It is the ninth largest Powerball prize in the game's history. Fox 5's Jen Williams is outside the store in Montvale where that ticket was sold. Jen, do we know the winner yet? No, they are still anonymous. I am still trying to hunt them down, but whoever it was, they woke up in a really good mood, and if they needed a jolt... They can afford a fancy latte now because, again, as you said, a ticket, a single Powerball ticket sold in the Garden State, all six numbers matched, the jackpot. Eight hundred and forty seven million dollars. So for two dollars a ticket, this is how it works. Powerball uses a random mechanical drawing process. And the ticket with the winning numbers came from a machine, a machine right here at the Wegmans in Montvale. And they were 15. The numbers, they were 15, 34, 41, 53, 56. And the Powerball 21. The winner can take a lump sum of $363 million before taxes or the full $847 million paid out. over 29 years. It's the ninth largest Powerball jackpot ever, and it ends a streak of 35 drawings without a grand prize winner. State law allows winners to stay anonymous, but the store will receive a $30,000 bonus for selling the winning ticket. It wasn't on my bingo card waking up this morning that we were going to find out that we sold the winning lottery ticket for $847 million. And I think, like anybody, when you hear that number, it's a bit of a shock. And to have it happen right here in our store, all I can say is it's generated a lot of excitement within the building, within our employees. It's crazy. We shop here every day. You wouldn't expect that. There were people lined up around 1 o'clock. They were buying tickets. And I thought... No, I don't think it's going to happen again, is it? What would you do with that kind of cash? Start a foundation. I'd buy a really nice car. It's a lot of hoopla for the store and very surprised. I was shocked when I heard it. As you heard, everyone's very excited. Now the Powerball jackpot resets to $20 million. The next drawing is on Saturday. The chances of winning Powerball, 1 in 292.2 million. For a little perspective, the National Weather Center says the chances of being struck by lightning. One and 1.2 million. So there's still a chance. It's a slim chance, but there's a chance. Natasha and Steve, I'll send it back to you. I mean, it's wild that like now I hadn't even heard of that jackpot because it wasn't over a billion. It takes so much to get us all worked up these days when it comes to the lottery, doesn't it? Wow. All right. We appreciate it. Thanks, Jen.