16 Ocean County Powerball winners come forward

LAWRENCEVILLE, N.J. (AP) - August 12, 2013 (WPVI) -- The "Ocean's 16," a group of 16 public employees on the Jersey shore who had one of three winning tickets in last week's $448 million Powerball jackpot, have come forward to claim their prize.

The photo of the sixteen winners was tweeted by the New Jersey Lottery on Monday afternoon.

The nine women and seven men posed Monday at lottery headquarters with an oversized mock check made out to Ocean's 16, what the group of Ocean County employees dubbed themselves in a play on the "Ocean's Eleven" series of movies.

The check was in the amount of more than $86 million, the lump-sum value of their ticket. Each will get about $3.8 million after taxes, lottery spokeswoman Judith Drucker said.

Lottery officials are introducing the winners to the public at a news conference Tuesday in the town of Toms River, where the employees have worked for the Ocean County Department of Vehicle Services.

Susan Nichel of Eagleswood Township, N.J. one of the workers at Ocean County's Department of Vehicle Services spoke with Action News on Friday.

"They all got to work before me and they had checked the tickets that were in our bottom drawer, because you know, nobody ever thinks they're going to win," she said. "I didn't believe them. And then my co-worker Elaine came out and shook me and said, 'We did win!'"

The winning ticket was sold in Little Egg Harbor Township, just miles from where Superstorm Sandy made landfall last October, causing heavy damage along coastal Ocean County.

Drucker said at least six of the Powerball winners were affected by the storm, with some suffering flood damage.

A suburban Minneapolis man, project engineer Paul White, claimed one of the Powerball prizes last week.

The holder of the third winning ticket, sold in South Brunswick, N.J., has not yet come forward.

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