Oklahoma Couple Claims Huge Powerball Prize

OKLAHOMA CITY (AP) _ Don Harvey's long-haul truck had almost two million miles on it when its engine died this week. Now he's planning to ride the road in style, thanks to a $105.8 million Powerball

Friday, June 29th 2007, 12:45 pm

By: News On 6

OKLAHOMA CITY (AP) _ Don Harvey's long-haul truck had almost two million miles on it when its engine died this week. Now he's planning to ride the road in style, thanks to a $105.8 million Powerball ticket bought by his wife.

``Absolute disbelief and shock,'' was how Joyce Harvey described her reaction when she checked her computer Thursday night and found she had the winning ticket.

``Basically, I just broke down and cried,'' she said.

The Harveys, from Muldrow in eastern Oklahoma, said they will pay off bills and financially help family members and think about buying a new home.

They chose to receive a $33.7 million lump sum after taxes instead of the full amount paid out over 29 years.

A truck driver all his adult life, the 64-year-old Harvey said he did not plan to stop working.

``I've got to have something to do,'' he said. ``I can't go fishing all the time and I don't play golf.''

He said he would buy a fancier truck than the one that finally quit running after he rolled into Muldrow from a trip delivering air conditioners to Madison, Wis.

But it won't be a new truck, he said, saying there is no reason to waste money, even if you've got it to waste, on a vehicle that depreciates so much in its first two years.

Joyce Harvey said she had heard media reports that someone had hit the lottery jackpot but had not claimed the prize. It never crossed her mind that that she might be the winner.

The ticket was purchased at a Shell service station in Roland, about five miles east of Muldrow, almost on the Arkansas border across from the city of Fort Smith.

It was a quirky thing that she won, she said, because she always had bought lottery tickets using the same numbers.

She said she recently bought a ticket, but the numbers ``came out wrong.'' She said she decided to use those same numbers when she bought the ticket in Roland and bingo, it was a winner.

She said it was ``very scary'' and ``caused knots in my stomach'' to find out she had won so much money.

The couple said they were ``pretty satisfied with our life'' and would have to think long and hard about what do with the money after first paying off bills.

``That will be a real treat,'' Mrs. Harvey said.

The couple did not tell anyone of their big score before a news conference Friday afternoon at the Oklahoma Lottery Commission in Oklahoma City.

Mrs. Harvey said she did not even divulge she was the winner when she visited the service station where she bought winning ticket, telling a clerk she heard there had been ``a lot of excitement around here.''

The Harveys said becoming instant millionaires will not significantly change their life style.

``You'd have to be dead in a box if it didn't change a person, but I don't think it will be a drastic change,'' said Harvey, a native of Coddott, Wis.

The Multi-State Lottery Association announced previously that only one ticket sold for Wednesday night's drawing matched the six numbers drawn: 9-11-13-24-43, and Powerball 18.

The odds of winning were about 176 million to one, said Jim Scoggins, executive director of the lottery.

Scroggins noted it was the second jackpot-winning ticket sold in Oklahoma since the state started offering Powerball in January 2006.

A $101.8 million jackpot, which came in a drawing last June, was claimed anonymously through a trust.

For the state the size of Oklahoma, about 3.5 million people, to have two Powerball jackpot winners in a year's time is ``just big odds, I can't figure out what they are,'' Scroggins said.

Watch the video: Oklahoma Couple Has The Winning Numbers