Mechanic, wife claim jackpot share

Powerball winners hope to keep living simple

DEARBORN, Missouri, Dec 1 (AP): A Missouri mechanic and his wife who claimed their share Friday of the record $588 million Powerball lottery jackpot said they hoped to stay true to their roots and keep living simply. Their 6-year-old daughter was at least hoping for a pony.

Surrounded by family and friends, Cindy and Mark Hill were introduced as this week’s lottery winners at the high school where they became sweethearts in the 1970s.

“We will still be going down to the corner cafe for breakfast or fish day. I can guarantee you,” Cindy Hill said. “You know it’s just us. We’re just normal human beings. We’re as common as anybody. We just have a little bit more money.”

Split

The Hills will split the $588 million prize with whoever holds a winning ticket sold at a convenience store in suburban Phoenix. No one has come forward yet with the Arizona ticket, lottery officials said.

The $587.5 million payout, which represents the second-largest jackpot in US history, set off a nationwide buying frenzy, with tickets at one point selling at nearly 130,000 per minute. Before Wednesday’s winners, the jackpot had rolled over 16 consecutive times without someone hitting the jackpot.

The Hills, who also have three grown sons, said they don’t play the lottery regularly. They spent $10 on five tickets with random numbers. The result: After taxes, they will take home a lump sum of $136.5 million.

“We’re still stunned by what’s happened,” said Hill, a former office manager who was laid off in 2010. “It’s surreal.”

Joining the Hills at the news conference were their children, with the youngest, Jaiden, sitting on her father’s lap clutching a black stuffed horse. She was adopted from China five years ago. When asked what she wanted for Christmas, the little girl said simply: “Pony.”

Friday’s news conference made official what just about everyone in the town of 500 north of Kansas City already knew, thanks in part to a Facebook posting by Mark Hill, said their son Cody.

Instructed

At first, the elder Hill told his son about the winning ticket but instructed him not to share the news with anyone. Cody Hill said he went to work and heard people commenting about how one of the winning tickets came from a local store.

He said nothing. But then a relative told him to look at his dad’s Facebook page, where his father had announced the family’s good fortune.

Cindy Hill, sounding cautious and a little concerned about the windfall, said they have no immediate plans to move out of their single-story ranch house on a quiet cul-de-sac.

But they will have more free time. Mark Hill quit his job as a mechanic Thursday. His wife, who missed a scheduled job interview on the same day, has no plans to keep looking for work. Instead, she plans to focus on their daughter.

“Right now, she’s our most important thing,” Cindy Hill said. “And we want her to have normal things. It’s Christmastime, and we want to be home. ... We want everything normal.”

Mark Hill said the adjustment in the family income hadn’t quite sunk in yet. He had to buy some small things Thursday when the family was in Jefferson City waiting for the Missouri Lottery to validate their ticket.

“We had to get like toothpaste and stuff like that, and I found myself at the store still looking at the price of stuff,” he said.