An Auburn, Washington woman and Boeing employee has been identified as the winner of the record-breaking Powerball jackpot that was drawn on Feb. 6.
The woman has worked as a supply chain analyst for Boeing for nearly 36 years. It was because of this that she decided to even buy a lottery ticket.
She was in the Auburn Fred Meyer with her daughter on Feb. 5 to get groceries when she saw a sign on the Lottery vending machine showing the estimated jackpot at $747 million. She also realized that Boeing had just that week delivered its last 747 jumbo jet.
The woman ended up claiming a $754.6 million jackpot. According to the Washington State Lottery folks, this was the ninth-largest Powerball won in U.S. history.
The Fred Meyer store that sold the $754 million winning jackpot ticket announced that it would be giving their $50,000 bonus to the Auburn Food Bank. The donation will provide about 66,000 meals to the community.
Kroger, who owns Fred Meyer, also gave $10,000 to the store to throw their own celebration with their employees.
This is the second time the winning Powerball ticket was won in Washington, which was also purchased in Auburn back in 2014. A $1 million Powerball ticket was purchased near Spokane in Nov. 2022, but has not been claimed yet.
Thanks to Claire in Vancouver for sharing this story about her fellow Washingtonian. If you have a happy news story you want to share, please feel free to drop it on our Facebook page.