Whenever someone scoops the jackpot in a major lottery such as the Mega Millions or Powerball, the media goes to great lengths to find more about the winners. This time they will have a hard time in tracking down Karl Herker and Barbara Matta, as the two of them decided to leave town immediately after cashing in the price. Their destination remains unknown and the town folks don’t know whether they will return to Kearny at all, but have only good things to say about the lucky winners.
Winning the Mega Millions jackpot by chance
There are plenty of stories about lottery winners who had no intention of purchasing tickets on that particular day, but eventually changed up their mind and won the jackpot. The story of Karl and Barbara is slightly different, because it was his intention to buy a Powerball lottery ticket but was presented with a Mega Millions slip instead. A former worker at the convenience store where the winning ticket was sold, presented them with a Mega Millions ticket by mistake and that’s how they became millionaires overnight
The total amount of the Mega Millions jackpot stands at a massive $19 million, more than enough to put their financial worries to rest. Herkert and Matta were struggling financially for quite a while as he lost his job and collected welfare for a long period of time before finding a job as a driver. She was working for a security surveillance venture, but it is safe to assume that Barbara won’t return to her job, as the two of them decided to leave town without notice.
A net amount of $9.4 million
As Mega Millions jackpots go, this amount of $19 million is not impressive and it is worth mentioning that the two winners collected just half of that sum. They opted in for the lump payment and after taxation the ticket was worth $9.4 million, still enough to turn someone’s life around. The numbers they intended to play on the Powerball ticket were 4, 22, 23, 27, 38 and 42 as the Powerball, but instead these ended on the Mega Millions ticket and were extracted the next Friday.
The fortunate mistake made them millionaires and the employees of the Dollar Subs convenience store, where the ticket was sold are very happy for the winners. On one hand they are glad that Karl and Barbara won the Mega Millions jackpot because they were regular customers and nice people, on the other hand the store also collected a generous payout. It received a prize of $30,000 for selling the winning ticket so at the end of the day everyone benefited from one employee’s error. Nobody knows anything about the possible location of the winners and they can only speculate on whether they will return to Kearns or not.
Check out the Two tickets win $61 million Mega Millions jackpot.