![]() ![]() He said they told him Wednesday morning he was just throwing away his money by buying lottery tickets. Of course, the guys at Norman Shue's job are in for a big surprise when they check the news. He is 33, she would only say she is "almost 30." The couple said they haven't thought much about buying a new house or whether they will keep their jobs. The Shues have been married for about seven years and have no children. After all, the money helps South Carolina education and "it's just the luck of the draw," he said. And Passailaigue said South Carolinians should have no hard feelings about seeing an outsider walk away with the big prize again. Players from Tar Heel state have helped make South Carolina the second-leading seller of the 26 places were Powerball tickets are sold, lottery Executive Director Ernie Passailaigue said. Both couples have been from North Carolina, which does not have a lottery. The Shues are the second Powerball winners to buy their tickets in South Carolina. ![]() Friday and showed the winning ticket at the front desk of the lottery's claim office, lottery spokeswoman Tara Robertson said. In fact, no one outside of the Shues may have known they were winners until they turned up in downtown Columbia around 11 a.m. Some family and friends called just to chat Thursday, but they didn't tell anyone. They moved it from cabinet to cabinet throughout the day for safekeeping, he said with a smile. The Shues hid the ticket in a cabinet so the couple's cats couldn't get to it, Norman Shue said. ![]() But state offices were closed for New Year's, so they opted for lunch at the Steak n Shake instead. The couple spent the next 20 minutes or so figuring out if they could claim their prize Thursday. "But half of me knew he was telling the truth the way he said it." His wife then took the ticket and checked the numbers several times again. He said he checked at least three more times, then found his wife and simply said "We won!" "Half of me didn't believe him," Deanna Shue said Friday. There it was, on the first ticket he checked: 5, 7, 18, 28, 35 and powerball 1. But around lunch, Norman Shue decided to check his numbers. The Shues didn't watch the drawing and spent the beginning of their New Year's Day taking down Christmas decorations. An occasional lottery player, Shue let the computer pick his numbers. Norman Shue stopped by the Clover Shop and Save after checking on a construction project in the York County town and bought 20 tickets Wednesday morning, about 12 hours before the numbers were drawn for what was the fifth-biggest Powerball jackpot ever. "It hasn't sunk in yet," a shellshocked Deanna Shue said before a half-dozen television cameras after claiming the prize Friday afternoon. The Shues said they aren't sure what they will do next beyond get some financial and legal advice and change their phone number. The person with the other winning ticket, sold in York, Pa., hasn't come forward yet. ![]() The construction project manager from Concord, N.C., and his computer programmer wife now have the envious choice of taking the prize as $110.75 million over 30 years or a onetime payment of $60.1 million before taxes, South Carolina lottery officials said. They wanted to claim the prize but couldn't because state offices were closed for New Year's Day. Norman and Deanna Shue said they took off for the burger joint not long after finding out they won half of Wednesday's $221.5 million Powerball lottery jackpot. So where do two of the country's newest multimillion dollar lottery winners eat lunch to celebrate? Try the Steak n Shake. ![]()
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