$45 Million Each!

D.C. Produces 2 Big Winners in Powerball

Percy Ray Pridgen read the numbers and hid in a bathroom. Charles Gill heard the numbers, told his wife and went back to sleep.

Winning $45 million, it seems, can make you do strange things.

Pridgen, a 69-year-old District resident, and Gill, 35, who lives near Richmond, split the $90 million jackpot in Wednesday's Powerball lottery. Even though millions of tickets are also sold in 14 states, both of the winning tickets were purchased at District stores.

The parade of winners into the D.C. Lottery Board claims office in Northwest Washington was steady all day yesterday. Eleven tickets purchased in the District won $100,000. Eighteen people won $5,000. One thousand, three hundred thirty-seven won $100. Tens of thousands won smaller prizes.

Asked how he'd spend his millions, Pridgen could think only of his family.

"Get a home in the country somewhere for my wife," said the retired bricklayer, a father of 17 and grandfather of 29.

And what about the rest of the money? "Somebody will have to tell me what to do with it," Pridgen said. "Somebody will have to tell me." Pridgen bought his ticket at Weltman's Liquor Store on Minnesota Avenue in Northeast Washington. The five numbers he selected -- 1-3-13-15-29 and Powerball number 12 -- hold no special significance to him. "They just came to me," he said.

Pridgen found the winning numbers in yesterday's newspaper. He compared them to his Powerball ticket once. Then twice. He started a third time, but uncontrolled trembling stopped him. When the shaking ceased, Pridgen motioned to a trusted friend. They huddled behind a bathroom door and looked over Pridgen's Powerball ticket.

"My friend said, 'You got 'em. Let's go,' " Pridgen said yesterday as reporters and cameras surrounded him outside the D.C. lottery headquarters.

Then he sobbed, covering his eyes with his hands. His friend and lottery officials steadied Pridgen as he seemed about to collapse.

The Powerball game is played in 14 states and the District. For $1 a ticket, a player selects five numbers from one to 45 and one Powerball number from a to 45. A match of all six numbers wins the jackpot. There hadn't been a jackpot winner in the last eight weeks.

The $90 million jackpot was one of the five highest jackpots ever in the United States. The largest single jackpot stands at $111 million, which a single ticket holder from Wisconsin won in July.

Chances of winning the Powerball jackpot are about one in 55 million. Lottery officials point out that you're 27 times more likely to get struck by lightning in the next year. So what are the odds of two jackpot winners coming from the District?"Incredible," said Anthony S. Cooper, director of the D.C. Lottery. "Incomprehensible."

But not insurmountable. At least not for Charles Gill.

He drove up from Chesterfield, Va., west of Richmond, with his brother this week and bought $15 worth of tickets, playing combinations of his and his 4-year-old daughter's birthdays. Gill bought his ticket at Subway Liquors on K Street NW.

"It wasn't too long to drive," Gill said. "Ninety million will make you walk to D.C."

The six-foot, 200-pound Gill strode into the lottery claims office yesterday afternoon determined to avoid publicity. With his 28-year-old wife (Mrs. Gill, she said), his daughter, a brother and a nephew walking ahead of him, Gill motioned to lottery director Cooper.

"Is there a bathroom around here?" Gill asked as he made a path for his family through the crowded lottery lobby. "Can we please use the bathroom?"

When the family emerged from the building, Gill's brusqueness had melted. It was confirmed. He was a big winner.

"It's going to be an early Christmas, I'll make sure of that," said Gill, who said he used to be a barber and a government worker, emphasizing the past tense.

He found out he was a winner when the winning numbers were announced late Wednesday night on television.

He woke up his wife, who didn't believe him. So, he said, he went to sleep.

Now, the Gills are planning a trip to Paris. His wife will take care of that. After the trip, Gill said, he has definite plans for the money. He wants to build a recreation center and fund programs for young black men in his old Richmond neighborhood. "I want to do something," Gill said. "These young brothers are out here killing each other. They've got to wake up. I'm going to do what I can to help stop it."

Gill and Pridgen will each receive a total of $45 million at the rate of $2.25 million a year -- before taxes -- for the next 20 years. They are to receive the first installment within 15 days.

The owners of the liquor stores that sold the winning tickets will get $25,000 each.

In all, District lottery players won $91.5 million dollars on more than 88,000 winning wagers.

"I think Santa Claus is flying over Washington today," Cooper said.