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INDIANAPOLIS (AP) — The sole winning ticket for an estimated $435.3 million Powerball jackpot — the 10th largest lottery jackpot in U.S. history — was sold at a northern Indiana convenience store where a store official said Thursday she hopes the winner is someone local.
The Hoosier Lottery said the ticket was sold at a Super-Test Mini Mart store in Lafayette, a city about 60 miles northwest of Indianapolis.
Nancy McKinney, the vice president of operations for West Lafayette-based Super-Test, said she was awakened at 5:30 a.m. Thursday by a phone call informing her about the win. She said she's hoping the winner is someone who lives in or near the city of about 70,000 residents, and not just someone who bought the ticket as they were passing through.
"Whoever it is, it's made somebody's day, that's for sure," McKinney said as journalists descended on the store. "We're excited about it. It happened to our town. As the word spreads, it'll be crazy here."
Hoosier Lottery spokesman Dennis Rosebrough said the winner has 180 days to claim the prize, which can be taken as a 30-year annuity or a one-time lump sum estimated payment of $263.5 million, both before taxes.
Indiana law allows jackpot prizes to be claimed by a limited liability corporation or legal trust, thus allowing winners to remain anonymous.
The estimated $435.3 million prize is the second-largest ever sold in Indiana. A central Indiana couple won a Mega Millions jackpot worth $536 million last July. That couple remained anonymous by claiming the money though an LLC.
A handful of other jackpot winners in Indiana have remained anonymous by setting up corporations to collect the money, including a 2012 Hoosier Lotto prize worth $34.5 million and a 2008 Powerball jackpot worth $57.6 million.
The numbers drawn Wednesday were 10-13-28-52-61 and Powerball 2. The top prize for Saturday's Powerball drawing drops to $40 million. Powerball is played in 44 states, plus Washington, D.C., Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands.
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