Florida city still wondering: Who won the $590M lottery jackpot?

Jun 3, 2013, 8:24 am (98 comments)

Powerball

ZEPHYRHILLS, Fla. — It's been two long weeks since the small city of Zephyrhills learned that a $590 million Powerball ticket was sold at a supermarket here.

No one expected the winner to come forward in the first days after the announcement. After all, curious residents reasoned, the person might need a few days to absorb the shock, or to consult with financial advisers.

But then a week passed, and more, and now folks are so anxious to know the winner's identity they could jump out of their skin.

"Being in a small town, everybody knows everybody and in some cases, everybody's business," said Dave Walters, a longtime reporter at the Zephyrhills News community newspaper. "It's hard to keep a secret in this town, but this is one of the biggest mysteries we've had in a long, long time."

Zephyrhills, population 13,337, is about 30 miles northeast of downtown Tampa. Like many Florida communities, it features a small, old-timey downtown strip where restaurants, gift shops and clothing stores sit under a canopy of oak trees. Around the city's perimeter, there's the suburban sprawl of big box stores. It was in that sprawl, at a Publix supermarket, where the winning ticket was sold.

Rumors were swirling about who the winner could be: Publix deli employees, single moms working at Wal-Mart — even the cousin of a friend of a guy who lived clear in another county.

"Anybody who did not show up for work on that Monday was considered to be the lottery winner," Walters said. "If you had the flu and didn't show up for work, everyone thought you were the lottery winner. If you took a personal day or a sick day, they thought you had won the lottery."

The city is known around the Tampa Bay area for a few things: as the source for bottled spring water, as an area where people like to skydive and as the home to several mobile home parks that cater to the elderly.

Joe Abed, who owns Manolo's Italian restaurant in the historic downtown, thinks the ticket was sold to a senior citizen.

"It's a conspiracy theory," he said, using his hands to make quote marks. "I believe it's a senior citizen that purchased the ticket and they just have no idea that they won the ticket."

Marsha Decena, a Zephyrhills clothing store owner, said she's anxious to find out who won.

"I've heard so many different rumors through town, from it being a 23- or 26-year-old woman to somebody might have washed it in their pocket, the ticket is just lost and they don't know that they won," she said. "It's crazy."

The winner has 60 days from the date of the May 18 drawing to claim a lump-sum payment, and until mid-November to claim annual cash payments.

Zephyrhills resident Don Lawrence thinks the winner is just lining up legal and accounting staff.

"Lost the ticket or something like that? No, I don't think so," he said. "I think somebody's taking their time, doing it the right way."

Newly elected Mayor Danny Burgess — who turned 27 on Saturday — said he hopes it's a resident.

"Just because one person won the lottery, we all feel like we won, that's the kind of community this is," Burgess said. "I absolutely hope for the lottery winner that this is a positive, life-changing event. Only in America can you go to bed with a lottery ticket and wake up a mega-millionaire. I hope that they understand, appreciate and recognize the significance of this."

Abed wonders if the ticket eventually is "just going to go back into the system" so the country can have "another huge lottery."

But that's wishful thinking. According to the Florida Lottery website, if a Powerball jackpot isn't claimed within 180 days from the draw date, "the funds to pay the unclaimed jackpot will be returned to the lottery members in their proportion of sales for the jackpot rollover series."

In other words, state coffers will claim the jackpot, and the people of Zephyrhills will be left to wonder.

AP

Comments

joshuacloak's avatarjoshuacloak

here the issue

the winner is Now losing money by not claiming by now

it takes just about "2 full weeks" for all diff state's to wire the money to the winner state"florida lottery"

to have all money in 1 bank account ready to pay'wire" to the winner if they pick cash

that is money that could be earning interest

aka losing money ,  and 278,175,000  cash is atfer 25% withholding rate   , sure they pay almust other 15% later on , but 278m intreast is no Joke money being lost some money here

 

all u people who say take your time, i say u have 2 weeks TIME, max, u can get ever thing done by 2 weeks easy

sense come 3rd week, your losing money by sure waitin and not even claiming yet

i can tell u right now, whatever legal help this winner has , should of warned the winner ,

MONEY now being lost by waiting to claim past this LATE point

maybe lottery winner just born turtle type,and we  have it claimed by end of this 3rd week, only week lost of intreast ,oh will no big deal.

if atfer this week, the winner "if they know they won sense day atfer the draw" i call anyone a moron money wise  who lose's money like this

or we  have a  clueless winner who does not even know they won, family issue's

who the hell knows

all i know is this winner taken to "long" as its costing them,   thro to be fair, if u know u have 200+ million in cash, who cares about losing some more money..............

i don't have high hopes for smart winner if by end of this week, there sure no claim

 

2 weeks is more then time needed to even do  a "legal court sealed name change" ,etc  any and all dirty tricks to hide your name could be done by now................

i give it 1 more week, like i said, maybe the winner just little slow in head...............................  by end of this  next week, if no winner, 

i can claim, we are not dealing with smartest person on plant who won,

as anyone who takes time to understand Powerball workings  would know by 2 weeks time, the money Ready to be wired to a winner, the winner just has to show up with paperwork to claim, give lottery a bank account number and wait for how long banks can wire that amount over

the banks talk to each other more  when wiring over this kinda large amount ,

 

i have not said anything about the winner for at lest 2 weeks,

now that they failed to show up in 2 week limit of getting stuff done without "losing money"

, i think we have to think the worst,  moron/clueless/slow poke who costing them self's money, etc

thro if winner claims this week, and its done in such a way to loophole right by florida lottery public winner mandate, we may have our self's one of smartest ever winner's

doubt it thro, all legal loopholes should of been ready by now............

in short, give it other week, if on 7th we have no winner, the winner not smartest investment person on planet , as no one lose's money like this

then again, my thinkin comes form investment world, we just have layman lottery winner, who clueless  is what scares me,   ether way, good luck to winner in avoiding the media 

lottolaughs's avatarlottolaughs

Even if someone won a jackpot on my own block I don't think I'd be "jumping out of my skin" to find out who it was. That's their business. The only reason you'd be jumping out of your skin is if you couldn't wait to find out who's porch to show up on to start begging,lol.

hearsetrax's avatarhearsetrax

Quote: Originally posted by lottolaughs on Jun 3, 2013

Even if someone won a jackpot on my own block I don't think I'd be "jumping out of my skin" to find out who it was. That's their business. The only reason you'd be jumping out of your skin is if you couldn't wait to find out who's porch to show up on to start begging,lol.

I Agree!

jackpotismine's avatarjackpotismine

It's the gummint that wants to know who won. Especially the IRS those @#$%!.

whiteballz's avatarwhiteballz

who was it? I don't care, it wasn't me. It is time to buy some tickets and hope I win a jackpot of my own.

Littleoldlady's avatarLittleoldlady

Quote: Originally posted by lottolaughs on Jun 3, 2013

Even if someone won a jackpot on my own block I don't think I'd be "jumping out of my skin" to find out who it was. That's their business. The only reason you'd be jumping out of your skin is if you couldn't wait to find out who's porch to show up on to start begging,lol.

I Agree!

savagegoose's avatarsavagegoose

$53k a week at 1%, not small change to likes of us, but in a years time  ; once its all set up. the winner wont care.

Ronnie316

Quote: Originally posted by joshuacloak on Jun 3, 2013

here the issue

the winner is Now losing money by not claiming by now

it takes just about "2 full weeks" for all diff state's to wire the money to the winner state"florida lottery"

to have all money in 1 bank account ready to pay'wire" to the winner if they pick cash

that is money that could be earning interest

aka losing money ,  and 278,175,000  cash is atfer 25% withholding rate   , sure they pay almust other 15% later on , but 278m intreast is no Joke money being lost some money here

 

all u people who say take your time, i say u have 2 weeks TIME, max, u can get ever thing done by 2 weeks easy

sense come 3rd week, your losing money by sure waitin and not even claiming yet

i can tell u right now, whatever legal help this winner has , should of warned the winner ,

MONEY now being lost by waiting to claim past this LATE point

maybe lottery winner just born turtle type,and we  have it claimed by end of this 3rd week, only week lost of intreast ,oh will no big deal.

if atfer this week, the winner "if they know they won sense day atfer the draw" i call anyone a moron money wise  who lose's money like this

or we  have a  clueless winner who does not even know they won, family issue's

who the hell knows

all i know is this winner taken to "long" as its costing them,   thro to be fair, if u know u have 200+ million in cash, who cares about losing some more money..............

i don't have high hopes for smart winner if by end of this week, there sure no claim

 

2 weeks is more then time needed to even do  a "legal court sealed name change" ,etc  any and all dirty tricks to hide your name could be done by now................

i give it 1 more week, like i said, maybe the winner just little slow in head...............................  by end of this  next week, if no winner, 

i can claim, we are not dealing with smartest person on plant who won,

as anyone who takes time to understand Powerball workings  would know by 2 weeks time, the money Ready to be wired to a winner, the winner just has to show up with paperwork to claim, give lottery a bank account number and wait for how long banks can wire that amount over

the banks talk to each other more  when wiring over this kinda large amount ,

 

i have not said anything about the winner for at lest 2 weeks,

now that they failed to show up in 2 week limit of getting stuff done without "losing money"

, i think we have to think the worst,  moron/clueless/slow poke who costing them self's money, etc

thro if winner claims this week, and its done in such a way to loophole right by florida lottery public winner mandate, we may have our self's one of smartest ever winner's

doubt it thro, all legal loopholes should of been ready by now............

in short, give it other week, if on 7th we have no winner, the winner not smartest investment person on planet , as no one lose's money like this

then again, my thinkin comes form investment world, we just have layman lottery winner, who clueless  is what scares me,   ether way, good luck to winner in avoiding the media 

good luck to winner in avoiding the media 

Do people who wait a long time to cash the big one get more attention or less?

billionaire2bee

Quote: Originally posted by Ronnie316 on Jun 3, 2013

good luck to winner in avoiding the media 

Do people who wait a long time to cash the big one get more attention or less?

I wouldnt even try to avoid the press myself....but I'd be making darn sure I had all my ducks in a row before I'd be holding that press conference at headquarters...I'm like go on get all the press out of the way up front at the lottery headquarters then go live your new life...

Ronnie316

Quote: Originally posted by Ronnie316 on Jun 3, 2013

good luck to winner in avoiding the media 

Do people who wait a long time to cash the big one get more attention or less?

Why do the states just keep the money if no one claims it?

CLETU$

Quote: Originally posted by Ronnie316 on Jun 3, 2013

Why do the states just keep the money if no one claims it?

The same reason that dogs lick their ba!!s.Because they can!

Ronnie316

Quote: Originally posted by CLETU$ on Jun 3, 2013

The same reason that dogs lick their ba!!s.Because they can!

Your right, lottery players never complained before.... Why should they start now? LOL

CLETU$

Lottery players DO complain,but it falls on deaf ears.When the Iowa lottery had the issue with the Hot Lotto ticket a couple of years ago they gave away the money at the state fair after people around the state complained agaisnt the state fair idea.The lottery in their wisdom or stupidity (take your choice) had their minds made up and no amount of pleading with them was going to change their mind.

Ronnie316

Quote: Originally posted by CLETU$ on Jun 3, 2013

Lottery players DO complain,but it falls on deaf ears.When the Iowa lottery had the issue with the Hot Lotto ticket a couple of years ago they gave away the money at the state fair after people around the state complained agaisnt the state fair idea.The lottery in their wisdom or stupidity (take your choice) had their minds made up and no amount of pleading with them was going to change their mind.

Why was that a bad idea? At least they gave it back to the people of your great state.

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