Updated: May 30, 2007, 7:59 pm

A Los Ojos, New Mexico, man stepped forward today to claim a $62.8 million Powerball jackpot one week after the New Mexico Lottery announced that the winning ticket from the May 23 drawing had been sold in New Mexico.

Felipe Piña purchased his ticket on Wednesday, May 23, at Giant Sundial #5 in Chama using a Quick Pick method. The numbers on his ticket — 03, 11, 24, 36, 38 and the Powerball 06 — matched the winning numbers drawn in the multi-state, lotto-style game played in 29 states including New Mexico, the District of Columbia and the U.S. Virgin Islands.

The odds of winning the game's top prize are one in 146 million.

Piña postponed claiming his prize by one week, following the New Mexico Lottery's recommendation that the then-unidentified player seek financial and legal counsel before turning in the ticket for the Lottery's validation.

Piña, the owner of an auto repair shop in Chama, has been a regular Powerball player since the game first came to New Mexico in October 1996. "I always knew I was going to win," said the big winner.

Piña bought his ticket Wednesday night, but didn't check his numbers until the following evening.

Alone in his car, Piña retrieved the ticket from the console's cup holder and checked the numbers printed in Thursday's newspaper. He read the numbers several times.

"Then I got out my reading glasses just to be sure," Piña said. "I started laughing."

At home, he set up his girlfriend Adelaine Aguilar to expect bad news. "Hey, babe, I have a problem," he recalled. Then the prize-winner came clean. "Do you believe in miracles because I just hit the lottery jackpot," he said.