Group of nine claims $207M Powerball lottery jackpot

Oct 3, 2008, 5:25 pm (29 comments)

Powerball

Nine friends from Roswell came to the New Mexico Lottery today to collect a Powerball jackpot of $206.9 million — the New Mexico Lottery's largest prize ever.

The nine winners are Carl and Holly Baldwin, Kevin and Jessica Breedyk, Ron and Cindy Miller, Ryan and Nicole Miller, and Randy Miller.  The friends elected to take the prize in a cash payment of $102.9 million rather than the annuity option of 30 payments over 29 years.

"I Started Bawling"

With money chipped in by her friends, a determined Holly Baldwin irked her husband, Carl, by leaving a family birthday party to drive across town to buy Powerball tickets at her favorite lottery retailer. At Roswell Shell No. 47, Baldwin purchased the wagers less than two hours before the Sept. 27 drawing at 8:59 p.m. Mountain Time.

After breakfast the following morning, Baldwin went to the lottery's website to check the winning numbers, unaware that the state was already buzzing with news that a jackpot-winning ticket had been sold in New Mexico. Among her ticket's quick pick set of numbers, Baldwin discovered the jackpot-winning combination of 13, 24, 29, 40, 52 and the red Powerball of 29.

"I started bawling," the 29-year-old woman said.

Baldwin began calling fellow winners.

"When Holly called me," Nicole Miller recalled, "my first reaction was that she was playing a practical joke because I could hear Carl laughing in the background."

After arriving home Sunday afternoon from a weekend road trip, Kevin and Jessica Breedyk had to be coaxed to get back into their car to drive to the Baldwin home.

"They finally said 'We have a birthday surprise for you,'" Jessica Breedyk recalled.

The winners, who sought legal advice before claiming their prize, plan to make investments.

"Every one of these young people realizes they have undertaken a major new responsibility," said co-winner Ron Miller.

Lottery CEO Tom Romero said the jackpot run up to $206.9 million started Aug. 6 at $15 million and rolled 15 times.

"During the run up, the lottery sold $7.6 million in Powerball wagers, players won $2.2 million in non-jackpot prizes, and $2.05 million was raised for Legislative Lottery Scholarships," Romero said. "This run up did a lot of good for the entire State of New Mexico."

Roswell Shell No. 47, owned by Brewer Oil, has sold 11 other large prize-winning lottery tickets ranging from $700 to $100,000. The store is located at 3001 N. Main Street in Roswell.

Since Powerball was launched in the state in October 1996, the New Mexico Lottery has had four other multi-million dollar jackpots. The state's first Powerball jackpot was claimed in November 2000 by 14 Sandia National Laboratory employees. They shared $131 million. In February 2002, Isabell Delgado of Las Cruces won $32 million. John San Cartier, an airman from Kirtland Air Force Base, collected $93.4 million in August 2005. Felipe Piña of Los Ojos claimed $62.8 million in May 2007.

Nine friends from Roswell came to the New Mexico Lottery today to collect a Powerball jackpot of $206.9 million -- the New Mexico Lottery's largest prize ever.
Nine friends from Roswell came to the New Mexico Lottery today to collect a Powerball jackpot of $206.9 million -- the New Mexico Lottery's largest prize ever.

Lottery Post Staff

Comments

ThatScaryChick's avatarThatScaryChick

Congrats to them! I am glad to read that a group of people won. It obviously made a lot of people happy.

DC81's avatarDC81

I bet they're aliens in disguise... Rich aliens now, congrats to them.

Todd's avatarTodd

I was waiting to see if anyone caught the fact that there are ten people in the photo, not nine.  (No, I don't know who the tenth person is — maybe a lottery staffer?)

wizeguy's avatarwizeguy

Quote: Originally posted by Todd on Oct 3, 2008

I was waiting to see if anyone caught the fact that there are ten people in the photo, not nine.  (No, I don't know who the tenth person is — maybe a lottery staffer?)

He must be the one in the back who doesn't have as big a smile as the others.

Litebets27's avatarLitebets27

Quote: Originally posted by Todd on Oct 3, 2008

I was waiting to see if anyone caught the fact that there are ten people in the photo, not nine.  (No, I don't know who the tenth person is — maybe a lottery staffer?)

Funny you mentioned this. That was the first thing that I dd when I looked at the picture.

Congratulations to the group.

JAP69's avatarJAP69

Quote: Originally posted by Todd on Oct 3, 2008

I was waiting to see if anyone caught the fact that there are ten people in the photo, not nine.  (No, I don't know who the tenth person is — maybe a lottery staffer?)

Thats "I"  Big Grin

He wanted to be in the photo with his Roswell friends .

savagegoose's avatarsavagegoose

wow they aint even cashed the check and there is hangers on trying to bum money already

Piaceri

Nice!  Congrats to the group! Party  Party time!

 

Yes when I saw the picture, my first thought was maybe one of the guys had a boyfriend......

Stew12's avatarStew12

Good for them!

I wonder how many tickets they had?

Lotto*Love's avatarLotto*Love

Quote: Originally posted by Stew12 on Oct 3, 2008

Good for them!

I wonder how many tickets they had?

thats what i was wondering too.  Makes me feel better when they only bought 1 or 2 tickets.  Gives me hope in my lottery buying times.  I can only afford a few.

But since they said she maybe collected money from everyone...could of been at least $9 dollars.  More depending on how much each added to the pot.

How much is that each family after taxes? About 15M?

I'm glad it was a group..CONGRATS!!!!!!!!!!

KY Floyd's avatarKY Floyd

Quote: Originally posted by wizeguy on Oct 3, 2008

He must be the one in the back who doesn't have as big a smile as the others.

No, he's the one who's wearing a suit, and standing in the middle of the giant promo check that's made out for twice as much as they're really getting.

NightTrain1234's avatarNightTrain1234

Quote: Originally posted by Piaceri on Oct 3, 2008

Nice!  Congrats to the group! Party  Party time!

 

Yes when I saw the picture, my first thought was maybe one of the guys had a boyfriend......

LOL!    Nah, the guy in the middle helping hold the check is the head lottery official in N.M.    The man hardly smiling is the son of one of the couples.

This newsstory said they haven't decided yet how to split the money among the 9 but they know it won't be evenly.    I smell a lawsuit coming on.    :-)

http://kob.com/article/stories/S604904.shtml?cat=500

spy153's avatarspy153

Congratulations to the winners ! 

 

See, what happened to it being a 200 million dollar jackpot?  They change it and don't let anyone know the differences.  For instance, what does that make the cash amount for that game now?  I don't know.  Does anyone know?  I feel slighted when they do things like that. 

JAP69's avatarJAP69

Quote: Originally posted by spy153 on Oct 4, 2008

Congratulations to the winners ! 

 

See, what happened to it being a 200 million dollar jackpot?  They change it and don't let anyone know the differences.  For instance, what does that make the cash amount for that game now?  I don't know.  Does anyone know?  I feel slighted when they do things like that. 

USA mega has the game info. Link on left.

Jackpot analysis

http://www.usamega.com/powerball-jackpot.htm

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