Better late than never: Austin resident claims $50K Powerball prize a day before it expired
Published 10:03 am Friday, January 13, 2017
- Debra Newman claimed a $50,000 prize from the Minnesota State Lottery a day before it was set to expire. Photo provided
With just over 24 hours to spare, an Austin resident arrived at the Minnesota State Lottery’s headquarters in Roseville to claim a $50,000 prize. Her winning Powerball ticket was purchased for the Jan. 13, 2016, drawing and was set to expire at 5 p.m. on Jan. 13.
Debra Newman said that she doesn’t play the lottery often and only purchased the ticket at the urging of coworkers when the jackpot reached $1.5 billion a year ago.
“The jackpot got big and everybody at work said, ‘Just go buy a ticket,’” she said in a press release.
Newman nearly didn’t claim the prize, thinking it was expired.
“It was a rough year and I thought for sure [the deadline to claim] was February. I heard on the news that a ticket purchased in Austin was going to expire and I thought, ‘Wait a minute, that’s me,’” she said. “The year went quickly.”
Newman said her coworkers went nuts when they heard about her win.
“We had our two minutes of screaming,” she said.
She bought the winning ticket at the 1201 W. Oakland Ave. Kwik Trip in Austin.
Twelve $50,000 winning Powerball tickets sold in Minnesota for the Jan. 13, 2016, drawing, one of which has not yet been claimed and expires at 5 p.m. Frdiay if a winner does not come forward. That unclaimed winning ticket was purchased at SuperAmerica, located at 514 Third St., in Jackson.
For more information about the Minnesota Lottery, visit www.mnlottery.com.