NJ Powerball Winner: Mom, 7 Kids

A woman and her seven adult children stepped forward Friday to claim a $429.6 million Powerball jackpot, the AP reports. Eight members of the Smith family announced that they had the sole winning ticket purchased in Trenton for last Saturday's drawing. They plan to tithe 10% of the money to their church. One of the daughters said the family matriarch spent $6 for two tickets for drawings held last Wednesday and Saturday. They have hired attorneys to help them with the money and will take a trip to the usual family spot, though they wouldn't say where that was.

The trip to claiming the jackpot began last week at a 7-Eleven in Trenton when someone bought two $2 tickets, one each for drawings held last Wednesday and Saturday, and spent an extra $1 on each ticket to get the "Power Play" option that multiplies the winnings. The purchaser chose the lower lump sum option over the higher-valued annuity, making Saturday's sole winning ticket worth $284 million before taxes. "They spent $6 to win $284 million. That's a pretty good investment," Carole Hedinger, the New Jersey Lottery's executive director, said earlier this week. The ticket is the largest single jackpot winning ticket sold in New Jersey and the sixth-largest in Powerball history. (More Powerball stories.)