The second Powerball $1.5 billion jackpot winners came forward to claim their prize in Florida. The trustees are David Kaltschmidt, 55, and Maureen Smith, 70, of Melbourne Beach.
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The lucky ticket was purchased at a Publix supermarket in Melbourne Beach on Florida’s central east coast.
The other winning ticket was sold at a 7-Eleven in Chino Hills, California, but the purchaser remains a mystery. The winners previously had not come forward publicly to claim the prize.
“Oddly enough, I checked the ticket and everything matched up”, Kaltschmidt said.
Kaltschmidt, a Northrop Grumman employee for 34 years, said he plans to retire now.
Smith said that she picked the winning numbers and they were the same set of numbers she has been playing “for years”, though she doesn’t play regularly.
“I’ve lost a lot of sleep”, said Kaltschmidt. It was split three ways in the January 13 drawing by tickets purchased in California, Florida and Tennessee.
Lottery Secretary Tom Delacenserie presents The Nickel 95 Trust w/ their 1/3 share of the $1.5B POWERBALL jackpot.
Kaltschmidt, an engineer, said that when he showed up late to work the next morning “they suspected I had won”.
The couple has been married since 1980 and moved to the Melbourne Beach area in 1991 from Long Island, New York. Smith, who’s a homemaker, says she wants a massage. She said the numbers were ones she usually chose, but that she played very rarely.
Tell us, HollywoodLifers – Are you excited to finally learn the identity of the Powerball winners?
Kaltschmidt has gained millions but said he’s lost 10 pounds from pacing the floor since winning the Powerball jackpot. But we will soon find out who beat the odds of one-in-292 million.
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They just missed the record.
