Julie Leach, who works at a fiberglass factory in Michigan, won $310.5 million on Tuesday. She's the sole winner of a Powerball jackpot, according to SFGate.
Leach purchased around $20 in tickets last week when the Powerball jackpot was really high. Upon winning, she immediately quit her job. "She punched out for the last time on Thursday morning at 1:20 a.m...She did come back on Friday and cleaned out a few personal things," co-worker and human resources representative Sarah Mercer said, according to Michigan Live. Leach worked at the factory for about 20 years, moving up to a supervisor position through promotions.
In her own words, she was having a "bad night" last week. She was working third shift when she went to McDonald's for her lunch break, around 1 a.m. last Thursday night/Friday morning. She checked her numbers while in the drive-through.
Leach plans to buy land and build homes for herself and her family with her lottery winnings. "I'm going to take care of my kids...I don't want them to have to work like I had to work and deal with the kinds of things I had to deal with over life. I just want to make it a good life for them, take care of them," she said.
She accepted her winnings as a lump payment of $197.4 million. After taxes, she'll get to keep around $140 million.
"We've always talked around campfires and stuff, that if we ever won the lottery we wanted to buy a bunch of land and build all of our kids a home and basically have our own little community," Leach said, according to The Denver Channel ABC. Now, she's going to make those dreams come true.
