Store owners sell themselves $25.5 million Powerball lottery ticket

Apr 1, 2005, 8:36 am (13 comments)

Powerball

Their day started with a phone call that they had won $25,000.

And it only got better from there.

Twenty-five million dollars better, in fact, for the Hubbard family Richie, Bobbi, Brent, Brian, Angel and Stacey, the first people to buy a ticket in Tennessee and win the Powerball lottery jackpot.

''That sure is a lot of zeroes,'' Richie Hubbard said as he and his family posed with an oversized cardboard check at the Tennessee Lottery's MetroCenter headquarters in Nashville yesterday afternoon.

When the phone rang yesterday morning at Hub City Napa, the auto parts store the Hubbards run in South Pittsburg, the people on the phone were from the lottery. They were calling to say the store had sold the winning ticket and would get $25,000.

''We were all excited and jumping around about that, when I said, 'Hey, let's check out our ticket,' '' Bobbi Hubbard recalled.

You see, the Hubbards had bought a lottery ticket from their own store, as they had previously in the year since Tennessee began its own lottery.

Bobbi and Angel usually buy the tickets. They bought yesterday's winning ticket March 2, and paid extra to have the same numbers ''drawn'' 10 times.

So they retrieved their ticket: 22, 28, 32, 33 and 39, and for the red Powerball, 42.

''She went back to the desk to get it out of the drawer. She about passed out. She fell down on the floor,'' said Cotton Owens at the Napa store. He minded the shop while the Hubbards collected their winnings.

A few blocks down Cedar Avenue at Moss Motors, salesman Buddy Gass wished all his sales were as easy as the one he made yesterday morning when the Hubbards entered the showroom.

''They said they needed something that could take six people to Nashville,'' Gass said. The vehicle selected was a red 2005 Dodge Durango, a model the salesman described as ''leather, limited (edition) and loaded.''

The Hubbards, Gass noted, told him they would settle the bill later.

''They're Dodge people. They'll be back,'' he said assuredly.

And with that, the Hubbards Richie and Bobbi, along with Richie's two grown sons, Brent and Brian, and the brothers' wives, Angel and Stacey departed their quaint hometown on the Tennessee River, famous for its annual Cornbread Festival, to journey from being middle-class citizens to being multimillionaires.

From that point on, business was not as usual at the auto parts store. People were stopping by to offer congratulations as word spread quickly that the Hubbards had gotten lucky.

''Anybody know my Uncle Richie?'' said a laughing Buford Swafford, a longtime friend of Richie Hubbard.

More seriously, Swafford said it couldn't have happened to a nicer guy.

''I've known him a long time. He's my mechanic. Well, he was my mechanic. Lord, I guess I've got to get another one now.''

But others said they doubted the money would change the Hubbards, who get the jackpot winnings plus the $25,000 for owning the store that sold the winning ticket.

''They're not going to change. I've known Stacey a long time. She'll still be Stacey. I know there'll be some differences, but they are not going to change. I'm just so glad that it happened to them. That's what everybody at the store has been saying all day,'' said Amy Overby, a friend of the Hubbards and co-worker with Stacey at the local Lowe's store.

Pam West, Bobbi's mother, said her daughter called her with the news shortly after discovering she had the winning ticket.

''She said, 'Sit down, but it's good,' '' West said.

''I couldn't believe it.''

West said she was happy especially for her daughter, who has had her share of difficult times in the past decade. Her son from a previous marriage, Bradley Hensley, suffered a severe brain injury after an accidental choking when he was 11.

''She took care of him for five years until he passed away. God's grace shown down through Bradley so many times. I've been wondering all morning about what God's showing us now,'' West said.

Jan Silva, a writer for the Hustler, a weekly newspaper in South Pittsburg, said she wrote stories about Bobbi's care for her injured son.

''If anybody deserves this, she does. Both of them do. Richie is a great guy,'' Silva said while working on the paper's next edition. She said Richie came into the newspaper office on Wednesday to tell her a local man had won $500 playing the lottery at his store.

''He was so tickled for the man. Then the next day boom! he's a millionaire. It's unbelievable.''

It wasn't known whether they would take an annuity or lump sum of $13.8 million.

What will the Hubbards do with the money?

The Hubbards said it will be used for the family store, a Napa auto parts location they opened two years ago, and for family needs.

She said their youngest son, Brent, was in a motorcycle accident a year ago Good Friday and had mounting medical bills and still needs surgery. ''That's taken care of now,'' she said. The family also said they may now have the resources to hire more help at the store and take some time off.

Will they take their winnings in an annuity or in a lump sum?

They haven't decided. The annuity would give them checks of more than $800,000 over the next 30 years. The lump sum would be worth $13.8 million.

Will they quit their jobs?

No. ''It's hard when you own your own store and you're open seven days a week,'' said Brian Hubbard, the store manager. ''You don't always have time to take off and do some things. We'll probably be able to take more vacations instead of working seven days a week.'' Besides, the family has a new, larger location opening on April 15.

Are people already hitting them for money?

Richie Hubbard said they had gotten some phone calls from long-lost relatives. Most interestingly, he said, they'd gotten ''a couple of big flower arrangements from a couple of banks.''

What is the coolest thing they'd like to have happen?

For one thing, they're huge NASCAR fans, and they'd like to have two-time Daytona 500 winner Michael Waltrip driver of the No. 15 Chevrolet sponsored by Napa in the Nextel Cup series at the grand opening of their new location.

Can lottery ticket vendors do that?

People like the Hubbards whose auto parts store is authorized to sell tickets for the Tennessee lottery are eligible to win a jackpot, said Rebecca Paul, CEO and president of the Tennessee Lottery.

State law prohibits the lottery's 175 employees, and their immediate family members who live at the same residence, from playing, Paul said.

Major vendors of the lottery, such as its advertising company, are also prohibited from playing, according to Kym Gerlock, lottery spokeswoman.

More winning tickets

Aside from the Hubbard family's jackpot win, five Powerball tickets were sold in Tennessee Wednesday night that are now worth $500,000, and seven others are worth $100,000.

The 12 tickets matched all five numbers on the white balls but got the wrong Powerball.

Picking such a combination usually wins $100,000. But five of those 12 ticket buyers also paid a little extra for the lottery's ''Power Play,'' option, which picks a number between 1 and 5 that is then multiplied by the amount of a winning ticket.

The Power Play number Wednesday night was 5, so five of those 12 tickets increased in value to $500,000.

All together, there were 89 of those $100,000 tickets sold nationwide, and 21 $500,000 tickets were sold.

Both of those were records, according to the Multi-State Lottery Association, which runs the Powerball game.

Tennessean

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Comments

nobie23's avatarnobie23

now isn't that ironic

congrats to the winners

golotto

Buying a ticket with 10 future plays and hitting Powerball on the 9th draw...and that same ticket still has one draw to go. Cool

CASH Only

Cool only if they choose CASH...

starchild_45's avatarstarchild_45
Quote: Originally posted by golotto on April 1, 2005

Buying a ticket with 10 future plays and hitting Powerball on the 9th draw...and that same ticket still has one draw to go. Cool






this is the only way i buy powerball myself. 10 drawings or more and the powerplay.
LOTTOMIKE's avatarLOTTOMIKE

too many people are winning the powerball lately.....

acronym007

I don't think they should be able to win... NOT FROM THE SAME STORE. They could be very honest people BUT who's to say that store owner doesn't tell some person, who isn't that bright that they did'nt win and then claim the ticket for themselves? I think at minimum they should have to play at other stores, winning from your own store is very suspect in my book even if the deal is competely clean. I know I would be double checking my tickets if I went in there to have them check by the machine. It's to much money to trust people's integrity.

CASH Only

The cash/annuity choice should be a no-brainer...

Rick G's avatarRick G

Acronym,

No fraud could possibly be involved in this case.  They bought the ticket nine draws ago.  There is still one draw remaining on the ticket and no player is going to give their losing ticket away until all draws have been played on that ticket. 

acronym007

Rick, I never said there was fraud. I believe there is more room for fraud or possible insider issues when you allow tickets to be purchased this way. What's to stop me from opening a storefront, selling tickets, finding a the winning ticket and keeping it. No one here will ever convince me that there is no possiblity of something going wrong, it doesn't always have to be direct fraud but what if you keep some tickets you were going to sell? You keep the winning ticket? If the owner has nothing to gain from tickets at his/her own store I think that is safer and there is less room for errors. People behave better when they have nothing to lose or gain. It's called being nuetral and in a lottery transaction all parties handling my ticket should be. In a real estate deal an agent cannot compete with a client for a piece of property, in the store, techinically your competing with the owners and I don't trust anyone when it comes to 25 mil. IMHO. Cheers all.

LOTTOMIKE's avatarLOTTOMIKE

i hope there are more tennessee winners in the future.....

LotteryBuddy

Agreed.  It is common sense that insiders should not be allowed to play, win and claim their own lotteries.  PERCEIVED conflict of interest is just as important as any actual conflict of interest.  Many lottery players will now think that Powerball is fixed.  It is possible that a customer had given them the 10-draw ticket to check in a previous draw, but they did not give the ticket back.

At least Tennessee prohibits their employees, families and suppliers from playing.  Many lottery organizations negligently allow ALL their employees and insiders to claim winnings, including all Canadian lotteries.  The Ontario Lottery and Gaming Corporation had to settle with a 70-year old man because they gave the senior's jackpot to the lottery vendor who they allowed to claim the senior's ticket.

Quote: Originally posted by acronym007 on April 2, 2005





Rick, I never said there was fraud. I believe there is more room for fraud or possible insider issues when you allow tickets to be purchased this way. What's to stop me from opening a storefront, selling tickets, finding a the winning ticket and keeping it. No one here will ever convince me that there is no possiblity of something going wrong, it doesn't always have to be direct fraud but what if you keep some tickets you were going to sell? You keep the winning ticket? If the owner has nothing to gain from tickets at his/her own store I think that is safer and there is less room for errors. People behave better when they have nothing to lose or gain. It's called being nuetral and in a lottery transaction all parties handling my ticket should be. In a real estate deal an agent cannot compete with a client for a piece of property, in the store, techinically your competing with the owners and I don't trust anyone when it comes to 25 mil. IMHO. Cheers all.




LOTTOMIKE's avatarLOTTOMIKE

this was not a conflict of interest,no fraud or anything in selling themselves a ticket.

LOTTOMIKE's avatarLOTTOMIKE

i wonder if they chose cash or annuity?

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