powerball Puerto Rico, N. Carolina, Texas tickets share jackpot

Associated Press

SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico

Somebody who stopped by a Shell station in southern Puerto Rico potentially was $100 million richer Thursday, winning a share of a $564.1 million Powerball jackpot — the first winner outside the continental United States.

The winner, who will share the jackpot with whoever purchased a winning ticket in North Carolina and another in Texas, has not yet come forward. But several Puerto Ricans who bought tickets at the station in the coastal city of Ponce have stopped by to ask about who won, said employee Yomaris Rentas.

The winner can claim the prize starting today, choosing between a lump sum payment of $101.6 million or 30 payments over 29 years, said Antonio Perez Lopez, assistant secretary of the Puerto Rico Lottery.

Neither of the other two winners has been identified either.

The Texas Lottery posted on Twitter that one of the winning tickets was sold at Appletree Food Mart in Princeton, a city about 40 miles north of Dallas.

Lottery officials in North Carolina said the other winning ticket was sold at a convenience store in Shallotte, a coastal town just north of the South Carolina line.