MEDFORD, Ore. – A Medford man says he and his family hold the winning ticket to the record $340 million Powerball jackpot. Landscape contractor Steve West says he has no big plans for the money, other than a car and a vacation.
“I still don’t really believe that it’s true,” West told ABC News Radio. “It just really hasn’t sunk in well. I’m told by everybody else that this is a life-changing situation, and I didn’t plan on wanting to change that much. I mean, the money always sounded great, but I didn’t want to change my lifestyle to go along with it.”
Chuck Baumann, spokesman for the Oregon Lottery, said he was unable to confirm whether West was the $340 million Powerball winner because no one has yet come to the lottery office with the winning ticket, which must be validated before money is paid out.
If the West family has won, they have a year to formally claim the Powerball prize at lottery headquarters in Salem, Baumann said.
The Wests’ modest gray shingled ranch house, lavishly decorated for Halloween with a graveyard, an inflated purple spider and a ghost, was staked out by television news satellite trucks, reporters and photographers. People driving by asked what the commotion was about. Police who knocked refused to say whether anyone was inside.
West told ABC News Radio he discovered he had the winner when family members checked the numbers online.
“And it was pandemonium, I guess was the way to say it,” he said.
The family did not watch the Powerball drawing, he said.
“We got a call from the other family members saying, ‘I can’t believe it, some of these numbers are matching.’ And then she (a relative) started saying, ‘All these numbers are matching.’ And we thought, ‘Wow.’”
It was the first time the family had played Powerball. They bought $40 worth of tickets after the jackpot reached a record $340 million.
“We went over and looked at the ticket, verified that it’s a correct ticket and just haven’t slept well the last two nights,” he said.
Besides talk about a car and a vacation, West said the family has no immediate plans.
“Of course, everybody dreams of winning the lottery, but I’ve never really made plans of what I would buy, because it never went that in-depth,” he said.
“We’re talking to our financial planner Tuesday, and we’re probably going to invest all of it or 99 percent of it,” he added.
For now, West said, he will keep his day job.
“I’m self-employed, and I still have been out to work yesterday,” he said, “and I’m still going out today.”
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