 John Polcak of Stevensville was one of a group of 25 employees at Salisbury Fine Metal Artisans in Easton who shared a $50,000 Powerball prize. |
Group of 25 co-workers claim $50,000 prize
Jan. 14 was an exciting day at Salisbury Fine Metal Artisans in Easton. Twenty-five employees of the company had pooled their money for the world-record $1.6 billion Powerball drawing on Jan. 13, and one of their tickets won them a $50,000 prize.
John Polcak, who came to Maryland Lottery headquarters in Baltimore to claim the prize on behalf of the group, said one of his co-workers began collecting contributions for the Powerball pool once the jackpot rose to a record level.
“The day of the drawing, in the morning we only had about 11 people in,” he said. “And then by lunchtime it was up to 25.”
The group bought $250 worth of Powerball tickets, spreading the purchases across three different retailers in Easton. The one that did the trick was East End Liquors, located at 2 East Avenue.
With the drawing taking place at 11 p.m., some members of the group watched it on TV. John was not one of them.
“I had gone to bed,” he said. “When I got to work the next day there was a huddle of three or four people standing around, and I said, ‘Come on everybody, get to work!’ And they told me one of our tickets won $50,000. And I said, ‘Whatever! Just get to work!’ I didn’t believe it. Then they showed me.”
After John referred to the Powerball payout structure on mdlottery.com and then sent an email to the Lottery to confirm the amount of the prize, the celebration at Salisbury Inc. began. The Talbot County company creates silver and pewter engraveable items and glassware. But there were five of its employees who weren’t part of the Powerball pool.
“There was some remorse on the part of the people who didn’t get in,” John said with a smile. “My boss didn’t get in.”
After taxes, each member of the group will receive $1,325.
The employees of Salisbury Inc. won their prize during Powerball’s historic run last month. There were winning tickets for the world-record $1.6 billion jackpot sold in Florida, Tennessee and California. The Salisbury workers had one of the 46 $50,000-winning Powerball tickets that were sold in Maryland during the run between jackpots (Nov. 5, 2015 through Jan. 13, 2016).