A fourty seven-year aged iron worker from the small town of gateway Georgia, Ga., claims to have won the $270 jumbo Millions lottery. He showed up Saturday morning to party at Clyde's Market, where he bought the ticket Friday nighttime.
The victor, who would merely give an Atlanta Journal-Constitution reporter his name as "Mr. Harris," said he lives in a mobile home with his wife and two daughters and drives to Atlanta to job on skyscrapers.
But all that's about to modify," he said. "I used to live in a preview. And I used to be an iron employee."
Georgia Lottery officials could not be reached for comment Saturday morning to confirm that Harris purchased the winning ticket. Harris said he selected the winning numbers - 7, 12, 13, 19, 22 and Mega Ball 10 - by using the birthdates of his six granddaughters, but he did not elaborate.
"I'm too happy and confused right now to think too clear," he said.
Georgiana Mulrooney - a clerk who works at Clyde's Market on Highway 80, the main road through the town of about 600 - confirmed that the store sold Harris the ticket. She said the store and Harris have been in touch with lottery officials.
Portal is linking Statesboro and Swainsboro.
At the only other place in Portal where lottery tickets are sold, Mighty Mike No. 19 on Highway 80, clerk Bridget Clarke said they were crossing their fingers earlier Saturday morning that the winning ticket had been sold there since a portion of the winnings goes to the retailer that sells the winning ticket.
"It's just between us and the other store," she said.
Guessing who had won was all the talk. Bulloch County Sheriff Lynn M. Anderson, who said he read that the ticket had been sold in Portal on ajc.com, said he and a group of five had bought lottery tickets Friday.
One of the members was absent Saturday morning from their usual coffee gathering. "We thought maybe she already went to Atlanta to collect," Anderson said.
At gateway Auto and Hardware, store owner Sammy Deal said the phone was ringing off the hook with people speculating who won. Were they from Portal or just passing through? And what would it mean to the town, which is a farming community?
"With that kind of money," he said, "they could buy the place."
Harris didn't mention the purchase of the city as one of the items on his shopping list.
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