Winners hold press conference but don't reveal names
Includes video report
DES MOINES, Iowa — Winners of a $241 million Powerball jackpot, the largest ever won by an Iowa Lottery player, claimed their prize Wednesday in Des Moines, but they refused to identify themselves.
A bus carrying about 50 people from Cedar Rapids pulled up to Iowa Lottery headquarters on Grand Avenue shortly before noon. The group included almost all of the 20 workers from the Quaker Oats plant in Cedar Rapids who jointly purchased the winning ticket as part of pool.
The workers wore red t-shirts and had broad smiles as they got off the bus. They whooped and hollered. Asked how they felt, they responded "Great!" and "Awesome!" Although none would provide their full name, they said they are members of the Retail, Wholesale, Department Store Union Local 110.
Assuming the winners take a lump-sum cash payout, they will each receive $5.6 million after taxes are paid, The total lump-sum payout was about $160 million before state and federal taxes were deducted.
A middle-aged man, who would only say his name was "Al," confirmed that he held the lucky ticket. The entire group then walked behind closed doors inside the Iowa Lottery's offices to validate their ticket and claim their prize money. The workers later held a news conference, appearing before TV cameras, but declining to give their full names, saying they are common people who wanted their privacy to be respected and that they didn't want to be bothered by solicitors.
Joseph Day of Cedar Rapids, a lawyer representing the winners, said he plans to seek a court injunction blocking the Iowa Lottery from releasing the winners' names to the public. Iowa Lottery Chief Executive Officer Terry Rich said the lottery believes the winners' names are public and should be disclosed. He said the lottery has given the group 10 business days to seek an injunction. The Des Moines Register and the Cedar Rapids Gazette made requests to Iowa Lottery officials for the names to be released under Iowa's Open Records law.
Rich said he wasn't aware of any situation previous where the Iowa Lottery had not made the name of a lottery winner public.
The winners were showered with confetti thrown by Iowa Lottery employees as they entered the news conference while friends and family members cheered. Some plan to retire immediately, one said he had purchased a couple of cars that he needed and another said he had plans to travel to Alaska. Earlier, lottery officials played a country western tune written and recorded by one of the winners' co-workers, which was titled, "Calling in Rich."
The union which represents the workers issued a statement saying that the Quaker Oats workers, who would only be identified as the "Shipping 20," were withholding their names for "legal reasons." They range in age from 35 to 64, and their years of service range from ten years to forty years per employee. Collectively, they have more put in more than 640 years of service at the unionized plant.
They have been buying Powerball tickets for the past fifteen years and finally hit the jackpot this year, the union said.
Together, they are thinking about how to contribute in a positive way to their Local 110 union family and to community initiatives that will benefit residents in and around Cedar Rapids, the union statement said.
"The union has stood up for us, on and off the job, and brought us together as one family. We've been through a lot together, especially since the flood of 2008, and this has given us a renewed appreciation for our union values," said one of the unidentified Powerball winners, a long-time worker at the plant, who was quoted in the union's statement.
The flood of 2008 in Cedar Rapids affected the shipping department and all other areas of the plant, and since then the 20 workers have jointly put in many extra hours in order to get the massive water-damaged facility up and running again, the union said. The statement said they know the important and historic role the Quaker Oats plant has played in Iowa's economy for decades.
"These guys have worked very hard for many years, and they want to use their good fortune to make life better for others at the plant and in their community. This is a great American story but also a great union story. These are some of the most decent and generous people you'll ever meet, and all of our members couldn't be happier for them," said Al Hartl Jr., president of Local 110.
The winning ticket was from a Powerball drawing held June 13. The ticket was sold at a Hy-Vee grocery store on Edgewood Road in Cedar Rapids, and there has been intense speculation since then over the winners' identity.
The odds of winning the Powerball jackpot are 1 in 175.2 million.
The winning numbers were 7, 10, 14, 33, and 57, with Powerball number 18. The jackpot ticket matched all six numbers drawn.
Iowa's biggest previous jackpot winners were Tim and Kellie Guderian of Fort Dodge, who claimed a $200.8 million prize in October 2006. The biggest jackpot ever for Powerball was a $365 million prize shared in February 2006 by eight co-workers at a ConAgra ham processing plant in Lincoln, Neb.
This was the seventh time a Powerball jackpot ticket has been sold in Iowa, but it's the fifth time the Iowa Lottery has sold a Powerball ticket worth at least $1 million since the game was redesigned in January. Those changes doubled the price of a Powerball ticket to $2 from $1, while providing more chances to win at least $1 million.
Iowa represents only 1 to 2 percent of total revenue in the Powerball game, which is played in 44 jurisdictions nationwide with total sales of more than $3 billion annually. Rich said the Iowa Lottery had been hoping to have four to six winners of at least $1 million annually under the new Powerball rules, but what's happened since January already has exceeded his expectations.
VIDEO: Powerball winners arrive at Iowa Lottery headquarters
VIDEO: Bus driver speaks about the 20 winners
PHOTO: The winners pose for a group photo
(Click to display full-size in gallery)
DOCUMENTS: Legal documents for the "Powerball Shipping 20"
See the Related Links section below to view four legal documents used by the 20 Quaker Oats workers to claim their prize without revealing their names.
Hurray for the shipping 20!!!
5.6 million after taxes, what a great story. Decent folks who want to give back to their community and local union.
Another feather in the cap of pro-pool advocates.
This is an unusual case where all twenty are seeking in injunction to prevent their names being given to the public. Should be interesting to
follow this one, particularly where Iowa is not an anonymous state.
Congrats to the winners.
Glad to see that they had a strong union that represented them instead of crawling into bed with management.
Congrats to the winners. what fun! whoo-hoo!
running gag is that .... should be curious to see how this plays out ..... but am curious how much the lawyer/s are gonna want if they succeed
Finally hit after 15yrs. Tomorrow never knows.
Nice to see a LARGE jackpot shared with alot of people. Eaching getting enough to make most of there dreams come true!
Glad to see a pool win. Hope none of mine take that long to hit. Love the document samples for reference when we do win.
It will be interesting to see how the anonymity request turns out.
Truthfully I don't think the lawyer(s) will succeed against the state. This would set a huge precedent for all other states which currently require public
disclosure of identity. To win a case like this, would be a landmark change in the present state statute lottery laws.
As far as fees, hopefully the "shipping twenty" were insightful enough to require a proposal from the law firm, which should also require a cap, to
prevent exorbitant expenses and greedy last minute surcharges.
In the end I'm sure they had already weighed the benefits of anonymity,
verses the legal cost to achieve this legal hurdle. (which again I do not think is possible).
As you say though hearse, should be very interesting to see how this all plays out.
Congratulations to ALL the winners.......
I agree that it is an uphill battle to prevail in court. They have one potential angle that could work. We hear time and again that the rationale for disclosing names is to create confidence in the buying public that it is real people winning. They can argue that all the publicity over the years has eliminated that need and the state no longer has a compelling interest to disclose names. If the state no longer has a compelling interest, then the privacy rights of the winners could trump the state's right to publicity. If a judge weighs the two interests, he (or she) could rule for the lottery winners. It is a longshot, of course.
Congrats to them!
I hope the next big Jackpot goes to one person!
Thaht's really interesting; I hope the judge grants the injunction. Maybe this will be the beginning of the end of states FORCING winners to be made public figures, which leads to all sorts of disasterous problems that can ruin their lives.
Congratulations to all the winners. I give them their due for wanting to keep their last name private. I'm very annoyed with the attitude by the Lottery big wigs who feel full names have to be revealed. People should have a right to want to keep their names private after they win.
Me,for instance!
No no no ....... MOI!
Congratulations to this jackpot winners in Iowa.
"If the state no longer has a compelling interest, then the privacy rights of the winners could trump the state's right to publicity."
There is a compelling precedent because by signing the back of the ticket, the prize winner is agreeing to lottery's rules and regulations. A judge could issue an injunction until it's settled in court but the prize will be not distributed until of the court makes it final ruling and this isn't the Iowa Lottery's first rodeo.
Al signed the back of the ticket right below where it says something like "Iowa Lottery game rules and regulations and Iowa law apply to all games, tickets, transactions, drawings, and prizes". If the Iowa Lottery rules say Al's full name is public record and will be disclosed to the media, Al already agreed to the Lottery rules by signing the ticket.
In January, the Iowa Lottery established a precedent involving the anonymity of jackpot winners.
"Shaw, who had signed the ticket as a trustee for an entity he called the Hexam Investment Trust, never revealed who was in the trust. Iowa Lottery officials gave him a deadline: Tell us who you represent by 3 p.m. Friday afternoon or forget about collecting the millions."
https://www.lotterypost.com/news/241710
And the Iowa "State lawmakers gave Iowa Lottery officials high marks Tuesday for the way they handled the mysterious circumstances surrounding a winning Hot Lotto jackpot that went unclaimed when attorneys representing a trust that turned in a valid ticket withdrew a claim for the multimillion-dollar prize last week."
https://www.lotterypost.com/news/241945
or maybe argue that since they came out in person... that that is all the 'proof' that the public is entitled to.
Yes, that makes a lot of sense.
I saw parts of their interviews on CBS and many of them said they hadn't slept or thought about anything else since learning they won even though their share of the winnings was only $6M. I've seen interviews of single winners of $10M jackpots that weren't nearly as excited. I guess it's the size of the jackpots and not the share of the jackpot that people get excited about.
From the picture, I count 18 out of 20 winners. Looks like two of the smartest stayed away from the fanfare.
congrats to all.
YES!!!! Happy to see some Union Brothers and Sisters win this jackpot!!!! I am a proud Union member myself!!!!!
Congrats to the winners! Looks like party time!
They must of been steaming when they saw those cameras. That's worst then giving their names. I'm surprised no one warned them. Now the world knows what they look like.
"If the state no longer has a compelling interest, then the privacy rights of the winners could trump the state's right to publicity."
The state doesn't need a compelling reason. All they need is a law. The winners who don't want to abide by the law are the ones who need a compelling reason. If they're extremely lucky the judge might acccept an argument that releasing their names puts them at risk, but in general the pubic's right to information trumps an individual's theoretical risk. Unless they can demonstrate an imminent danger I don't see a workable argument.
Besides presenting the ticket, this seems to have been organized as a publicity tour for their union. They didn't just know they'd be getting publicity, they wanted it.
So, is it possible to show up on a publicity tour, then ask for privacy, and not be an idiot?
$241 million will buy a lot of Frosted Flakes!
lol
$42,000,000 tonite will buy allot of Cherrios!
Congrats to the lucky winners, enjoy your winfall.
ALot of Series hope you are Saddle up For a Tripple ride!!!
879
887/877/779/799/889/899
Play all your trips!!!
$49,800,000 will buy so many Cherrios!
Let's not forget they are paying a lawyer to ask a judge to order an injunction that will hold up their checks until a final judgment is made. RJ said some of them haven't slept since finding out they won and because they want anonymity which they already lost, it might take another month to get paid.
Stack47,
Good observation, will it cause them to break ranks ?
Since day one, everybody knew a group from the Quaker Oats shipping department won the jackpot and now that they had their picture taken, most of their identities are probably already known. They might not even know they won't get their checks until some court makes its final ruling and because we're talking about Iowa law, it could go all the way to the Iowa state Supreme Court.
If I was one of them, I'd volunteer to sign the ticket, let the lottery publicly disclose my name, get my money, and the rest of the group could still pretend they are anonymous.
For a cut I'll volunteer even though I'm not part of the pool. LOL
Have you seen anything that specifically says they won't get the check while the case is proceeding? The article say they "claimed the prize". I'd say that allows the lottery to publicize their names immediately, but the lottery willingly gave them 10 days to pursue the injunction. So long as the ticket passes the validation the lottery is obligated to make payment in accordance with law. If the law, as a result of an injunction, prevents them from releasing the names that doesn't make them ineligible for payment.
I wouldn't be at all surprised if all the winners really hope for is asome time to get squred away witht heir new status before the lottery releases their names. If they can get the injunction it will be months or more before the case is decided. Interest will have died down, and the winners' new neighbors probably won't know who they are.
Congrats to all the winners, I hope you have fun and travel.