St. Louis.Mo., Co-Workers Win $200,000 Powerball Prize on Mistake

02/14/08 St. Louis.Mo., Co-Workers Win $200,000 Powerball Prize on Mistake!

A group of 33 co-workers from General Motors in St. Louis, Missouri scored big when one of their co-workers made a mistake and purchased a wrong set of numbers. That wrong set of numbers matched the five white-ball numbers drawn during the Jan. 9Powerball drawing.


Alice Barnes, of St. Louis said the group began playing together in April 2007. Each member of the group contributes $8 each month to buy tickets. Each member of the group was given the opportunity to select a set of numbers. Later when Barnes was filling out the playslips for the group's numbers, she accidentally marked the number 21 instead of the intended number of 19. "I was supposed to go back and change it, but I never got around to it," Barnes said. "So everybody thought that we matched four numbers instead of five."

They were definitely surprised when I told them," Barnes said with a laugh. "I'm their hero now, but you know I would've been mud had the 19 come up instead." Barnes purchased the winning ticket at Schnucks Market in Florissant. Barnes said many of the group members plan to use their share of the winnings to pay bills, buy big-screen televisions and furniture.