2012 Year in Review: 48 Septa Employees Share Huge Powerball Jackpot
By Tim Jimenez
PHILADELPHIA (CBS) -- This past spring, a group of Septa employees had the luckiest lunch break in company history: at the Gallery shopping mall in center city, they bought a Powerball ticket that won a jackpot worth $107 million (see news story).
For more than a week after the April 25th drawing we didn't know who Septa's forty-eight newly minted millionaires were (see news story). Those who did know kept it quiet.
"I know a few of them, yes," acknowledged one fellow employee. But she declined to disclose their identities before they were ready.
"No, I wouldn't do that to them," she said.
But on May 4th, we finally got to meet the "Septa 48" (see news story), and one recounted reviewing the winning numbers.
"Four, twenty-five, twenty-nine. I'm like, 'Oh my god!' Thirty-four, forty-three... I'm like, 'Oh my god, oh my god!' " she told reporters at a press conference.
A total of 48 employees who took part in the pool -- ages 26 to 69 and with service to the company from less than a year to more than 42 years -- each took home around $2 million.
"When I look at the light at the end of the tunnel, it's no longer a regional rail train coming at me," said 42-year-veteran Dan DiSantis.
One winner described battling stage three breast cancer, then coming back to work just in time to play.
Another talked of losing his beloved wife.
"She died a year and a day before the drawing," he said, holding back tears.
Some have since retired, but 34 still work for Septa.
And yes, they still buy lottery tickets (see related story).
