Powerball winner likely getting over shock, lottery spokesman says
The wait continued early Friday for the winner of the Powerball jackpot worth $425.3 million to come forward after having bought the ticket at a Bay Area gas station.
The winner has up to a year to claim the prize, but state lottery spokesman Alex Traverso said people generally turn their ticket in within a week.
“I give the person the first day to be shocked,” Traverso said on Thursday, “and then the wheels start turning.”
Wednesday’s winning ticket sold at a Chevron gas station in the city of Milpitas was the only one in the nation to match all six numbers.
Two other tickets purchased in California matched five of the six winning numbers and are worth about $1.4 million each. One was purchased in El Segundo, the other in Modesto.
Despite the yearlong window for claiming the prize, Traverso said he’d recommend turning it in sooner rather than later.
“I know if it were me, I wouldn’t want to sit on the ticket until Monday,” he said.
Offices where the winner can claim the prize open later in the morning.
The jackpot was the sixth largest in U.S. history and comes just a few weeks after Steve Tran claimed half of a $648-million Mega Millions jackpot with a ticket he purchased a few miles south of Milpitas in San Jose.
Twitter: @aribloomekatz | Facebook
Start your day right
Sign up for Essential California for news, features and recommendations from the L.A. Times and beyond in your inbox six days a week.
You may occasionally receive promotional content from the Los Angeles Times.
