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Subscribe to RSSOne set of winners, from Missouri, has already come forward. But mystery still surrounds the person who bought the winning ticket in Arizona. NBC's Kerry Sanders reports.
A six-year-old girl may get the pony she has dreamed of owning, thanks to the record Powerball jackpot her family just won.
The Hill family of Dearborn, Mo., who won half of the jackpot worth $587.5 million, appeared at a press conference on Friday with six-year-old Jaiden, who was adopted from China, clutching a stuffed horse as her parents were handed an oversized check made out for their share: $293,750,000.
"We’re still stunned by what’s happened. It's surreal and people keep asking us, 'What are you going to buy with it?' I just want to go home and be back to normal," Cindy Hill, 51, said at the press conference in which she, her husband Mark, their three adult sons and daughter Jaiden were introduced to the nation.
Since winning, the couple has considered adopting again, according to the lottery. Mark has spoken of getting a red Camaro; they also would like to take Jaiden to the beach, since she's never been to one. And they plan to start college funds for their grandchildren and nieces and nephews, as well as set up a scholarship fund at the local high school in Mark's father's name.
They are also looking forward to not working and traveling together as a family using their winnings, Hill added.
As for the pony, it will be coming -- but later.
"The pony’s not going to be for a while," Cindy said Friday. "I think we’re going to just stick with what we have planned, and maybe after the first year, go on a big vacation.”
Cindy Hill, the matriarch of the Missouri family who half the record $580 million Powerball jackpot, and her children talk about their new life as millionaires.
After hearing on Thursday morning that one of the winning tickets was sold in Missouri -- the other was sold in Arizona -- Cindy dropped her Jaiden off at school, went to a convenience store for a winning numbers report, and checked her tickets in her car.
"I didn't have my glasses, and I was thinking, is that the right number? Is that the right number?" Cindy said.
Upon seeing that one of the five tickets she bought had the winning combination, Cindy said she headed straight to her mother-in-law's house and asked her to double-check the ticket. Husband Mark, 52, joined her there to see for himself.
With the odds of any single ticket winning the jackpot at 1 in 175 million, the Hills said they hardly gave a thought to winning. They spent $10 on tickets Wednesday evening and didn't check them again until Cindy saw they had won Thursday morning.
Cindy was an office manager until she was laid off in 2010; Mark works as a mechanic for Hillshire Brands, according to the Missouri Lottery.
They don't play the lottery often, and don't have any plans to move from Dearborn, a Kansas City suburb.
The couple traveled to Jefferson City, Mo., to meet with lottery officials after discovering they had won. When packing for the trip, Mark, still in shock over the magnitude of their win, said he stopped to buy toothpaste for his travel bag, and said, "I found myself in the store still looking at the prices."
"Old habits are hard to break," he said, adding, "We don't have the money yet!"
Dave Kaup / Reuters
Cindy Hill holds the microphone to six-year old daughter Jaiden, held by husband Mark as sons Jason and Cody, right, look on during a news conference on Friday.
David Troutman, a former high school classmate of the winning couple, said on TODAY that they first posted the news on Facebook.
"I was on Facebook and I saw that his wife had posted, ‘Thank you God, we won the lottery.’ Of course everybody in town, all his friends, gave all thumbs up. It couldn’t have happened to a better guy,’’ Troutman said.
The Hills are high school sweethearts. In the tiny town of Dearborn -- population, 496 -- their identity didn't stay secret for long.
“Word spread that he won so fast,’’ Troutman said. “I heard that it was a winner from Dearborn, and by the time I walked in the door my mom was on the phone, and she said, ‘He won. It was him.’ Who knows what the impact will be on Dearborn.’’
Jason, one of Cindy and Mark's sons, said Friday, "I hope we stay grounded. I hope we stay the same great people we were yesterday and the day before."
Dozens of others become instant millionaires too
Dearborn is about 35 miles north of Kansas City, the home of the Royals baseball team. While some speculated that the winning numbers -- 5, 23, 16, 22, 29 and Powerball 6 -- were based on Kansas City Royal greats' jersey numbers, the Hills said on Friday that they had done the computerized random quick-pick.
All but five states -- Delaware, Kansas, Maryland, North Dakota and Ohio -- require the lottery to release the winning names to anyone who asks, according to the Powerball site.
No one has come forward yet to claim the winning ticket in Arizona, but on Thursday, a mystery man showed up at a gas station in Upper Marlboro, Md., claiming to hold the big winner.
Surveillance video showed a man in a yellow construction suit slowly amble up to the counter, where he pulled out some lottery tickets. After confirming that the numbers on one of the tickets matched, he can be seen in the video repeatedly pumping his fists. It’s unclear what the man was doing in Maryland with a ticket ostensibly from Arizona.
NBC's Kerry Sanders reports from Dearborn, Mo., where the town is celebrating one family's luck of winning half the record Powerball jackpot. A family friend of the couple, expected to be named by lottery officials Friday, tells TODAY's Savannah Guthrie "it couldn't have happened to a better guy."
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Congradulations to you both. If your looking for a good cause and good place to give some of that money away, please consider the A.S.P.C.A. They are in such need of it. I always said that if I won any large amount, they would be first on my list. Please help them and all the animals in need.
I agree with you 100%! That would be my first choice because I love animals so much.
Best of luck to the new winners! They are down to earth people and I wish them the very best! So good to see small town folks win the Lottery! Yeah!
I am glad I was able to help make you a ridiculously wealthy family. I did my part. If you really want to say "thank you," I can think of a million ways to do so. Just remember all the losers that made you the winner. Your life just got really complicated... in a good and bad way.
There I feel better now.
They should give some of it to charity, I would.
They are now evil, greedy, rich people who should give up their money to poor people. Those slimy pieces of garbage. They should be taxed at 75% of their income AFTER they pay taxes on the lump sum amount!!
Tax the rich, tax the rich, tax the rich!!!!
"I was just telling my daughter the night before, 'Honey, that probably never happens (people winning),'" Cindy said.
I love that! Congrats! Remember, you can't win if you don't play. For all you jealous, negative people who keep bringing up the odds of winning and people wasting time and money buying tickets, well someone out there is going to do just that - break the odds and WIN, and it could be you!
Put all the cash in the Cayman Island Banks. It will be safe right next to Mitt's.
Cha Ching!! Goes their cash register!! Best of wishes to them! I still hold gambling as a sin though. Back to work I go!!!!!!
John - you are right. The last thing I'd want to do is go on Facebook and announce it. Might as well put a sign on your forehead and say come & get me all the moochers and cons. That money will probably be a curse in the end as it doesn't sound like they have a clue how to protect it.
Congratulations! I hope that you and your family will have a wonderful, safe, healthy, and happy life!!! Best wishes to you. Maybe one day I'll be one of the lucky ones, too. Wouldn't change a thing, just help out some of my friends, and finally retire. Maybe travel a little more, but would try to help out as many as I could. I'm thrilled for y'all!!!!!
CONGRATULATIONS!!!!!!! What a blessing in this economy!!!!
Good luck with beating off all those moochers that will be beating down your door....
Lottery winners (million+) should quit their jobs so someone esle can have one.
Sothat's like $30 million in taxes. See now we don't have to raise our taxes in 2013. ;)
I would not give a dime to any Charity organization. I would rather give money directly to someone in need. This way I know 100% went to that person in need.
congratulations!!!! what a blessing in this eceonomy!!!!
Mom, is that you?
good for them, they should have consulted a lawyer first! so everyone does not know there names...They just need to lay low for a year or so let it roll by!
do they have a spare ten thousand they can lend their fellow man?
Good luck with that amount of money. I hope they invest it Wisely. Plus now they will have all kinds of people coming out of the wood work saying they are related to them. And people calling them for money, and knocking on there door. Or they will be broke in a year, if they do not invest wisely.
But also the IRS will get there's before they get any money, and they will take a big chunk of it. And they have to pay taxes on that money every year.
Congratulations to fellow Misourians, Mark & Cindy !!! & ignore all the idiots that post their ignorant garbage on here!
These folks should have done a little research on WHAT to do when they won. So far they seem to be doing everything you should NOT do when winning the lottery. The last thing I'd do is post that I won the lottery on facebook. That was a pretty dumb thing to do IMO. The smarter thing would have been to have an attorney claim the prize for a family trust. Too late for that now. Given the approach they've taken I wish them luck...they'll need it.
To the Hills; first congratulations, please don't piss the money away.
$301,000?!?!?! Damn... $82k would put my wife and I in the clear. With that dough in the bank it would accumulate that much in interest in about 2.5 minutes!
I DO wish the family nothing but good luck with their new fortune. Unfortunately, I don't think we've seen the last of the headlines involving this $$$.
Whether $587 million or half or even a quarter of that amount, the lotto's prizes are too big for the average person to handle. I don't play because the chances of winning are just too small. If they increased the odds for actually winning so more people actually won, more people, like me would play. I know many of you criticizes "Meanman" for his comment, but I've watched many a program where winners really did lose it all in a matter of years; whether trough stupidity or scammers, many have ended up poorer than they started out. Rarely do we read about any that actually made it and remained wealthy. Again, if the odds were better to win, maybe smaller prizes, but more really would play.