March 5, 2009 in Nation/World

Co-workers share $216 million ticket

Samantha Henry Associated Press
 
Associated Press photo

Bob Space holds up the $216 million winning Mega Millions lottery ticket Wednesday at Chubb Insurance Company in Whitehouse Station, N.J. Space and nine co-workers will share the jackpot.
(Full-size photo)(All photos)

WHITEHOUSE STATION, N.J. – It may go down as the best memo Bob Space ever wrote: “We won the big one!”

He sent it Wednesday morning to nine fellow employees at an insurance company in central New Jersey who may soon share a $216 million Mega Millions jackpot.

The 10, who work in Chubb Corp.’s technology department, showed off their winning ticket Wednesday outside the office in Whitehouse Station.

Each person threw in $5 toward a 50-ticket purchase, which Space made Monday night at a Singin Oil gas station in Toms River, near his home in Manchester and the Garden State Parkway entrance he uses to go to work each day.

Lottery officials say no one has officially come forward to claim the prize yet, but the ticket the group showed to reporters Wednesday matched the winning numbers. The 10 have not discussed when they will claim the prize but have a year to do so.

Space stopped by the station again Wednesday morning to get a printout of the winning numbers to check the tickets.

“I jokingly asked him (the attendant) if anyone had won and if it was sold here, but he didn’t know,” Space said. “So, I stuffed the numbers in my pocket and came to work.”

At his desk he discovered that the group “had won the big one,” inspiring his short but happy memo.

Most of the other nine said they thought he was joking.

Now they are trying to figure out how to spend the money. The group said they intend to take the $140 million cash payout and split it 10 ways.

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