LINCOLN, Neb. -For a living, they made hams. They worked the concrete floors inside a sprawling brick factory just across a row of railroad tracks from the downtown business district here, logging their time on the second and third shifts of a plant that doesn’t sleep.
On Wednesday, they stepped forward as millionaires.
Eight co-workers at a ConAgra ham processing center, who each had contributed $5 to buy a pool of lottery tickets late last week, emerged from three days of seclusion to claim the record $365 million jackpot. They wore bright, yet anxious, smiles as they talked about their good fortunes and pondered their not-so-anonymous futures.
“I’ve been retired for about four days now,” said Eric Zornes, 40, who first learned of his newfound wealth after returning home from an unsuccessful weekend trip to a casino.
It’s the largest lottery jackpot in the nation’s history, which as it turns out, is perfectly divisible by eight. The winning alliance opted for the one-time cash payout and will each receive $15.5 million after taxes.
The gang of eight was introduced at a televised news conference here at the Cornhusker Hotel as though they were contestants on a game show. As they made their way to a makeshift stage, the voice of a lottery official boomed: “Michael, come on down. Our next individual is Quang Dao. And we’re happy to introduce Rob Stewart!”
The faces of the new millionaires represented a tapestry of the American industrial work force: two are Vietnam refugees who immigrated to Lincoln 16 years ago; one is a political refugee whose family fled the Congo in 1999. Five are married. Three are single.
The governor of Nebraska and other assembled dignitaries led the applause as the group of seven men and one woman strolled before a bank of television cameras. Three of the winners wore sunglasses and took questions from reporters with refreshing humor. Soon, all of them were presented giant checks as a symbol of their fresh prosperity.
“We’re still thinking we’re going to wake up from a dream,” said Chasity Rutjens, 29, who has worked at the plant for nine years. “You always think, “Geez, it would be nice not to work any more,’ but it’s a lot different when it happens. We’ll see how it turns out.”
Not all of the winners, though, stepped immediately into early retirement. At least three workers said they would stay on the job – for now, anyway.
“They would have been short of help,” said David Gehle, 53, a supervisor who has worked at the plant for two decades. “The managers, we think a lot of them. We couldn’t just leave them.”
Four hours before the lottery news conference, Gehle had finished working the overnight shift at Cook’s food processing, a division of ConAgra. He said he planned to report to work Wednesday for his 10 p.m. shift and politely asked not to be disturbed until then, saying: “I need to get some sleep.”
For the last five years, a group of workers at the meatpacking plant pooled their resources every time the Powerball jackpot eclipsed $45 million. They employed a careful system of bookkeeping, photocopying their lottery tickets and keeping a log of the $5 investors.
As the game’s payoff grew to $365 million, the group of eight formed their lucky alliance. Shortly after 3 p.m. on Friday, Dung Tran, 34, walked into the U-Stop convenience store two blocks from the plant and bought the winning ticket.
He squirreled away the ticket – declining to reveal where – until turning it over to lottery officials Tuesday.
“I held onto ticket,” said Tran, who wore a red Nebraska Cornhuskers stocking cap, as he spoke to a crush of reporters. “I can’t sleep. I scared.”
After the winning six numbers were drawn Saturday night, word slowly started to spread that one of the group’s tickets was golden. Alain Maboussou, 26, said when his wife woke him up on Sunday, she wondered if he had missed a shift because his co-workers had called “like 20 times.”
Maboussou, who fled the Congo in 1999 to escape civil war in central Africa, said he planned to quit his job at the meatpacking plant and pursue a college business degree. His winnings, he said, would provide for his wife and 3-month-old daughter.
“She’s going to be happy for the rest of her life,” he said.
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Before their grand introductions on Wednesday, the gang of eight hunkered down as Nebraska’s capital city was abuzz with suspense and gossip about the winning ticket. The group of eight gathered privately Sunday and turned to the Yellow Pages to find an attorney, ultimately reaching Jim Hoppe who happened to answer his office telephone.
“If you stay in the office after normal hours,” Hoppe said, “strange things can happen.”
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The last time so much attention was paid to Lincoln – if the number of satellite trucks lining downtown streets is a good measure – was nearly a decade ago when Nebraska won its last national football championship. After the news conference was televised live on local channels and nationally on cable stations, the implications for the Powerball winners dominated conversation here.
“Whenever there is a lot of money, everything changes,” John Baylor, an afternoon talk show host on Lincoln radio station KFOR, told his listeners. “Do they keep slicing ham or sit back and watch the interest roll?”
Mike Terpstra, a 47-year-old supervisor at the plant, did not have an immediate answer to that question. He needed time, he said, to absorb his new station in life and determine what to do with his money.
“Everybody has dreams – buy an island, buy an airplane,” Terpstra said. “But in reality, I’m not a fan of flying and don’t really like water.”
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AP-NY-02-22-06 2017EST
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