Somebody's pipe dream has come true - and the winner doesn't even know it yet.
Riegel's Pipe & Tobacco Shop, 624 S. Calhoun St., sold a Powerball ticket worth $100,000 on Nov. 22. But nobody has come to claimed the prize, said Frank Bougher, assistant manager.
Signs were up in the downtown shop today asking the anonymous winner to come forward.
"If nobody claims the prize (by the deadline for) the drawing, the state gets to keep the money," Bougher said. "We had to print the signs up ourselves." It means the ticket would expire around mid-May. Riegel's would get $1,000 for selling the ticket - if the prize is claimed.
Bougher said the store sells about $2,500 in Powerball tickets each week - many to regular customers and some to people from other cities and states.
If the winner was a regular player, Bougher said, perhaps the person "just wanted to declare the winning in the new year. Or maybe the ticket was lost in the wash. But I'm surprised nobody has surfaced by now."
Riegel's has sold one scratch-off ticket worth $200,000, and this would be its second $100,000 Powerball winner. Local restaurateur John Freistroffer won $100,000 a couple of years ago, Bougher said.
This marks the second time in two years a large Powerball prize has gone unclaimed locally. Steven Jones of Roanoke claimed his $500,000 prize in January 2002, less than a week before the deadline. That ticket had been sold at Lassus Brothers, 12010 U.S. 24.
The winning numbers for the ticket sold at Riegel's were 9, 12, 17, 29 and 45. The Powerball number was 4.
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