| Connect to share and comment |
Sarah WolfeApril 18, 2012 11:46
Merle and Patricia Butler, Illinois Mega Millions winners, claim prize
The Red Bud, Ill., couple will receive $218.6 million as part of their share of the record $656 million jackpot.
The Red Bud, Ill., couple will receive $218.6 million as part of their share of the record $656 million jackpot.
Enlarge
Mega Millions lottery ticket forms at a convenience store on the east side of Manhattan March 30, 2012 in New York.Three winning tickets were sold for the $640 million jackpot - in Maryland, Illinois and Kansas. (Stan Honda/AFP/Getty Images)
Retired Southern Illinois couple Merle and Patricia Butler stepped forward Wednesday with the third winning ticket to claim their share of the record $656 million Mega Millions jackpot.
"I looked (at) my wife, who was right there with me and said, 'We won,'" Red Bud resident Merle Butler, 65, told reporters of the moment he realized he had a winning ticket the night of the March 30 drawing. "Then she looked at me funny, and I said, 'No, we won.'"
More from GlobalPost: First Mega Millions winner claims prize
"She giggled for about four hours, I think," he said, according to CNN.
The Butlers' share of the record jackpot is $218.6 million. They chose to accept the prize as a lump-sum payment of $158 million after taxes, The Associated Press reported.
The other two winning tickets have been anonymously claimed in Maryland and Kansas, according to the Huffington Post.
More from GlobalPost: Maryland Mega Millions winners claim jackpot
Merle and Patricia Butler bought a $3 quick-pick ticket at the MotoMart convenience store in Red Bud, which is about 40 miles southeast of St. Louis, according to the AP.
Merle Butler said he and his wife stayed up all night when they learned they had a winning ticket. The next day, they put the ticket in a lock-box at a local bank, the Huffington Post reported.
According to the Huffington Post, the couple has been thinking of ways they can invest the money and has consulted advisers and lawyers.
More from GlobalPost: Strategy key to picking Mega Millions numbers, experts say
http://www.globalpost.com/dispatch/news/regions/americas/united-states/120418/merle-and-patricia-butler-illinois-mega-millions
.
-
Photo
Jaume Plensa's "Tel Aviv Man" at Art Basel, the world’s premier trade fair for leading galleries and collectors focused on modern and contemporary art.
- [/] -
Photo
The front of the Art Basel building. This year’s show attracted 303 of the world’s top galleries from 36 countries, showing the works of more than 2,500 artists. It drew more than 62,000 visitors, a new record.
- [/] -
Photo
Platform Gallery's Chen Wei and one of his "Recovery Room" series at Liste Young Artist's show. By the time the week was over he had sold more than 10 works, with prices ranging from $1,800 to nearly $3,000.
- [/] -
Photo
A performance spectator admires some of the pieces at Basel Art.
- [/] -
Photo
A performance piece at Basel Scope, done by an unidentified nearly naked man who moved in slow motion up and down the aisles dressed like a Greek version of Mars, the god of war.
- [/] -
Photo
A performance piece at Scope. The man clutched a staff, on which a plastic container for motor oil with the BP logo was impaled.
- [/] -
Photo
An installation piece at Basel Art.
- [/] -
Photo
An installation piece with paper tubes at Basel Art.
- [/] -
Photo
A gallery scene at the Scope Basel show.
- [/] -
Photo
A sculpture of Sperone Westwater Gallery's employee, Michael Short, by Evan Penny.
- [/] -
Photo
Evan Penny's sculpture of Michael Short.
- [/] -
Photo
A woman views Jaume Plensa's "Tel Aviv Man," (Study) 2010, Galerie Lelong, Paris.
- [/] -
Photo
"Medusa marinara," 1997 — a photographic representation of the Medusa in spaghetti and tomato sauce by New York-based Brazilian artist, Vic Muniz.
- [/] -
Photo
Children play around Ai Weiwei's piece, "Field," 2010.
- [/] -
Photo
Heimo Sobernig's "Black Cube" sits on display outside outside.
- [/] -
Photo
A piece by Yayoi Kusama titled "Pumkin."
- [/]
Follow us: