Georgia Trucker Claims Half of Record $390 Million Lottery Jackpot

Mar 7, 2007, 10:05 pm (46 comments)

Mega Millions

A truck driver from northwest Georgia came forward Wednesday afternoon to claim half of the record $390 million Mega Millions jackpot, the richest lottery prize in U.S. history.

Ed Nabors of Rocky Face, about 90 miles north of Atlanta, was the first person to step forward and claim part of the jackpot from Tuesday night's drawing.

Nabors told reporters gathered at Atlanta lottery headquarters that he is "still numb."

He bought the ticket at Favorite Market in Dalton.

Because he took the cash option, Nabors will be taking home $116 million dollars, before taxes. Lottery officials estimated he would be left with about $80 million. Had he taken the annuity option he would have taken home $195 million spread over 20 years, before taxes.

Nabors who has been a trucker for about eight years, said he planned to do a lot of fishing, and plans to buy a new boat for himself and a new home for his daughter, who lives in a mobile home. He said he planned to drive a truck "for at least two more days."

The 52-year-old trucker said he went numb, "weak in the arms," when he found out he had won. He said he sat for about 20 minutes when his dispatcher, looking at the GPS and seeing that he had not moved, called to see if he was all right.

A co-worker verified the ticket and called the dispatcher to say he had won the lottery.

As for his immediate plans, Nabors said: "There are a lot of things I can do with this money. I can help a lot of people."

Lottery winners commonly opt for the cash payout on the advice of financial experts.

There were just two winning tickets sold in the 12-state game, lottery officials said.

The other winner was traced to Campark Liquors in Woodbine, N.J..

The winning numbers: 16-22-29-39-42, with the Mega Ball 20.

The odds of hitting it: about 1 in 176 million.

Tuesday night's drawing was held in New York's Times Square in ABC's television studio rather than Atlanta after brisk sales pushed what had been an estimated $355 million jackpot estimate to a record $370 million.

Even though the temperature was just 16 degrees, a handful of hopefuls showed up in Times Square to watch the drawing.

Millions of others had lined up at lottery agents in the 12 states to buy tickets Tuesday. New Yorkers bought more than 1 million tickets an hour, said Robert McLaughlin, the state's lottery director. Virginia retailers sold about 8,550 tickets per minute.

New York construction worker Andelko Kalinic had an idea of what he would do if his Mega Millions ticket paid off.

"Go to the moon," he said. "Why not?"

Some lottery hopefuls in Ohio never had a chance. Ohio's lottery ticket system went down statewide at about 10:20 p.m., 25 minutes before the deadline, Cohen said. The cause hadn't yet been determined.

"For those people who wanted to make a wager and didn't get a chance, we're very, very sorry," she said.

The largest previous multi-state lottery jackpot was $365 million in 2006, when eight workers at a Nebraska meat processing plant hit the Powerball lotto. The Big Game lotto, the forerunner of Mega Millions, paid out a $363 million jackpot in 2000.

Mega Millions tickets are sold in California, Georgia, Illinois, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, New Jersey, New York, Ohio, Texas, Virginia and Washington state.

Top Ten Mega Millions Payouts

1. $390,000,000, Mar. 6, 2007

2. $315,000,000, Nov. 15, 2005

3. $290,000,000, July 2, 2004

4. $267,000,000, Feb. 28, 2006

5. $265,000,000, April 18, 2006

6. $262,000,000, Nov. 11, 2005

7. $250,000,000, Sept. 16, 2005

8. $230,000,000, Feb. 20, 2004

9. $225,000,000, Nov. 8, 2005

10. (tied) $220,000,000, April 14, 2006

10. (tied) $220,000,000, June 29, 2004

Fox News, Lottery Post Staff

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Todd's avatarTodd

Congrats, and please be careful!

whodeani's avatarwhodeani

Well at least he took the time to talk to a laywer, a tax accountant and financial planner first. Always scares me when you hear of lottery winners who rush into these things.

jeffrey's avatarjeffrey

Ohhhhh, why did he give his name. Was it required? Now,he will have terrible problems.

JAP69's avatarJAP69

Yep

And I heard on the radio news today about the Ga winner. They were interviewing the sales clerk that sold the ticket.

She mentioned it would be nice to help the person that sold the winning ticket.

emilyg's avataremilyg

My TV  station just said it was all quick-picks.

Littlemanjen

Yep, it was his sixth line out of ten quick picks that won, for all of the system players that overthink things in the Jackpot games. IT IS LUCK, PURE AND SIMPLE!!!!!!! Get over it!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

MillionsWanted's avatarMillionsWanted

Why do they even bother with calling the jackpot $390 million dollar when the real value after taxes are $160 million dollar?

 

Why not just say the jackpot is at $160 million dollar and be finished with it? 

One2Adore's avatarOne2Adore

Because if they choose the installments, the value IS $390 million.  Only if they take the lump sum is the amount cut in half.

codmander

poor guy  lol  sounds silly   hope eerything works out for him and the vultures leave him alone

bobby jones's avatarbobby jones

Lottery is a fraud.out of 390 million dollars how do u only give out 160 million after taxes?.at the very least the  winners should walk away with at least half of the advertised jackpot after taxes.i guess that i will never be a millionaire through the lottery system because i dont play the million dollar games.the statement about them cutting it in half because of the lump sum is not true..if you take the 20 year option you still will pay the same amount in taxes if not more.there are no 300 plus million dollar jackpots only the illusion of a jackpot that big so people will give the lottery more money.

argentmann

"There were just two winning tickets sold in the 10-state game, lottery officials said."

I thought there was 12 states in the Mega Millions. 

RJOh's avatarRJOh

Quote: Originally posted by bobby jones on Mar 8, 2007

Lottery is a fraud.out of 390 million dollars how do u only give out 160 million after taxes?.at the very least the  winners should walk away with at least half of the advertised jackpot after taxes.i guess that i will never be a millionaire through the lottery system because i dont play the million dollar games.the statement about them cutting it in half because of the lump sum is not true..if you take the 20 year option you still will pay the same amount in taxes if not more.there are no 300 plus million dollar jackpots only the illusion of a jackpot that big so people will give the lottery more money.

If you don't play you don't have to guess about never winning, you know for sure.

MillionsWanted's avatarMillionsWanted

Quote: Originally posted by One2Adore on Mar 8, 2007

Because if they choose the installments, the value IS $390 million.  Only if they take the lump sum is the amount cut in half.

They still have to pay taxes for the installments.

OldSchoolPa's avatarOldSchoolPa

I take it that you also think that working a JOB is a fraud in that Uncle Sam does the exact same thing in taking 15 to 28 percent of your earnings...actually, the government takes even more than that from your weekly/biweekly/monthly paycheck...after the federal (usually always applicable unless military serving in hazard zone like Iraq/Afghanistan) and state (if applicable) tax, you are are hit with Social Security and Medicare.  Those self-employed individuals have to pay self-employment tax....so all in all, I would not mind at all JUST paying Uncle Sam 28 percent and IL 3 percent of any lottery winnings, especially if we are talking about MILLIONS OF DOLLARS.  Got my dollar and dreams riding on the $12 Million Mega Millions draw this Friday...just think if I win, I won't even register on the media's radar because I WILL HAVE ONLY WON $12 million!Dance

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