Auburn resident Becky Bell already had a Powerball ticket, but was grocery shopping with her daughter when she noticed something that persuaded her to buy another.
The lottery vending machine at the Fred Meyer store showed the estimated Powerball jackpot winnings had reached $747 million. She thought about how Boeing, where she’s worked as a supply chain analyst for nearly 36 years, had just delivered its last 747 jumbo jet.
“That’s when it hit me ... I had to buy one more ticket,” Bell said in a statement shared by Washington’s Lottery on Friday.
That ticket held the winning numbers for the fifth-largest Powerball jackpot win, and the largest-ever win in Washington state: 5, 11, 22, 23, 69 and Powerball 7.
When Bell claimed her $754.6 million prize, she also learned another set of numbers on her winning ticket won her $8 more, the statement said.
Bell’s win marks the second time the Powerball jackpot has been won in Auburn and in the state. The previous winner, whose husband also worked at Boeing, won a $90 million jackpot in 2014.
The numbers were drawn Feb. 6, but Bell didn’t immediately know she held the winning ticket, the news release said.
The following day, she saw a news story that the winning ticket was sold in Auburn and thought “that could be me,” so after a work meeting she scanned her first ticket, but it wasn’t a winner.
She then checked her second ticket and it said “winning ticket.” She knew she had won at least $600, but didn’t realize she had won the jackpot until she checked each number.
“I’ve never won more than $20 in my life,” Bell said. “So you can imagine my shock when I realized what had just happened. I just broke down and cried.”
Bell woke up her son to double-check her numbers, woke her daughter to triple-check and called her other daughter to check again for good measure. She also texted her mom and sisters just to be sure.
Everyone was emotional to hear the amount of money Bell had won.
Bell, a regular player who usually spends $20 a week on lottery games, was planning to retire in June but has moved up the date to the end of March as she finishes training the people who will take over her job.
Washington’s Lottery gives a $50,000 selling bonus to the retailer selling a winning Powerball jackpot ticket. Bell purchased the winning ticket at the Fred Meyer at 801 Auburn Way N.
On Feb. 9, Fred Meyer officials announced they would donate their prize money to the Auburn Food Bank through the company's Zero Hunger — Zero Waste campaign, the statement read.
Kroger, the company that owns Fred Meyer, contributed $10,000 for the store's employees to "celebrate the win," according to the statement.
