Ticket worth $71.5M sold in KC area

PLATTE WOODS, Mo. -- The Missouri Lottery said Friday a Powerball ticket worth $71.5 million was sold at a Kansas City, Mo.-area convenience store.

Lottery officials said a ticket sold at the Autobahn BP store in Platte Woods matched all six numbers drawn Christmas night.

Store manager Hanish Kumar said one of his regular customers didn't know his ticket was the winner when he came in for his usual breakfast of coffee and a doughnut Thursday. Kumar got a shock when he checked the man's ticket on the computer and found it had a winning Powerball.

The winning numbers were 23, 28, 38, 39, 56 and the Powerball number was 32.

"He was shaking," Kumar said. "He said, ‘I don't know what I'm going to do now.' For me it was surprising."

Lottery spokeswoman Susan Goedde said the winner would be announced in the next few days through a news release or news conference.

The winner can either collect the full jackpot in 30 annuity payments, or take the one-lump payment of $39.8 million before taxes. The store also will benefit.

"This lucky location will receive a $50,000 bonus for selling this prize, so we are very excited for them, as well as the winners," said May Scheve Reardon, executive director of the Missouri Lottery.