THREE RIVERS, MI -- The Shell station on Michigan Avenue in Three Rivers was abuzz with the news Thursday morning that the winning $310.5 million Powerball ticket had been purchased right here.
Rumors were flying about who the big winner was, but no one was naming names.
"I"m protecting my friends, I have to do that," said store manager Regina Bontrager, who said she had learned the person"s identity.
Earlier, she wasn"t so sure. She had heard via Facebook that it was a supervisor at a local plant.
But minutes later, a man who appeared to have the winning ticket showed up to confirm the numbers with clerk June Evans, who watched as each number appeared to match. He quickly turned and left, stopping after a step to return and ask her not to tell anyone.
Minutes later, that man, who gave his first name as Tommy, told the Kalamazoo Gazette he was not the winner.
"It"s definitely not me. I"m not the guy that hit the lottery," he said. "It would have been awesome. Most of the money would go to churches and charities, that"s what I would do if I won."
A man who stopped in to buy coffee at the station said he knows the man who bought the winning ticket, along with his fiance. "He"s been pacing around his backyard all morning," the man said.
Ronie Thurmand, who buys coffee at the Shell station every morning, said he thinks he knows who won, a local man whose Facebook page says he is, indeed, in a relationship. Attempts to reach him by phone were not immediately successful.
"I was happy for the guy who won," said Thurmand, who insisted he"s not overly envious.
"Money is nice but having wonderful friends is a lot better," he said.
The winning ticket matched all five numbers 21-39-40-55-59 and the Powerball 17. The lump sum cash option on the winning ticket is $197.4 million, according to the Michigan Lottery.
Bontrager said as of late Thursday morning that she had not yet heard from the state lottery officials about what part of the winnings will be returned to the store, about 30 miles south of Kalamazoo in southwestern Michigan, and didn"t know if it would benefit her particular station or simply go to corporate headquarters.
Nor did the staff at the Shell station know which cashier sold the winning ticket.
None of the women at the counter Thursday morning expect to profit from the winner"s good fortune. Many, many ticket buyers say at the time of purchase that if they win, they"ll share, but it hasn"t happened yet.
"They say "I won"t forget you,"" Evans said.
This win, the second largest jackpot ever won in Michigan in the multi-state Powerball lottery a Lapeer man won $337 million in 2012 dwarfs the last big winner at the Three Rivers Shell station, which was $250,000 five years ago. With so much more to go around, might it be different this time?
"I"m kind of hoping, yeah," Evans said.
By around 11 a.m. Thursday, the traffic had eased, the reporters had left, and the business had slowed to gas and a few late donuts.
"My boss said: "Get done with your fame," Bontrager said, "and get to work.""
And then a customercame in for coffee with the news that her friend had just told her that the winner was his boss at the local Meijer store.
And so the buzz and the speculation continued.
Source: http://www.mlive.com/news/kalamazoo/index.ssf/2015/10/three_rivers_abuzz_with_storie.html
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