A Paducah man is $150,000 richer after he bought a Powerball ticket from Saturday night’s drawing.
Jimmy Sharp of Paducah was one of two lucky players in Kentucky who matched four white balls and the Powerball to win the game’s $150,000 third prize.
Sharp, who has worked as a captain on a riverboat for nearly 50 years, had just returned home from a 28-day shift. He said he was leaving the boat when he saw a sign for the upcoming Powerball jackpot. Sharp made a point to stop at Quick Shop on Bridge Street to buy his tickets. He told lottery officials he will usually purchase tickets once the jackpot reaches $100 million. Sharp chose to have the lottery terminal pick his numbers (Quick Pick).
Lucky for Sharp, one of his grandson’s suggested he add Power Play when purchasing his tickets. Since he opted to add the Power Play feature for an additional $1 per line on his ticket, his prize was multiplied. The Power Play number drawn for the April 6th drawing was three, tripling his winnings to $150,000.
Sharp took his tickets to the store the morning following the drawing to have them checked by the clerk when he discovered he was holding one of the winning tickets.
“I had six tickets and when I gave her the fifth one that’s when it lit the machine up. She said, ‘Oh, you’ve got a big winner,’” he said. Since the prize was for more than the store could pay, she printed off the payout information from the terminal so they could find out how much he had won.
“That’s when I knew, and she told me to sign the ticket.”
“I felt pretty good,” Sharp said.
Sharp traveled to lottery headquarters on Wednesday with his son where he walked away with a check for $108,000 after taxes.
He told officials he plans to put the winnings in the bank and will help his family.