Over $200 million in winning tickets never claimed

The Florida winners of the historic $1.58 billion Powerball drawing stepped forward Wednesday to collect their portion of the prize.

Powerball had the largest recorded jackpot in world Powerball history on January 13.

The big jackpot and the pair’s win benefitted others, as well.

“That was hard”, Smith told reporters Wednesday. Oh, and Smith wants a massage. Kaltschmidt has reportedly been designing airplanes as a loyal and dependable Grumman employee for the last 34 years, but said he’s probably going to retire now.

The winners had one of the winning tickets in the January 13 drawing. “I said, ‘she’s messing with me, ‘ ” Kaltschmidt said.

The $528.7 million prized was claimed by The Nickel 95 Trust, Florida Lottery officials said.

Florida alone generated $283 million in Powerball sales – more than $114 million/see add/rt of it will go toward education.

The winners, identified as married couple David Kaltschmidt and Maureen Smith, opted to take their winnings in one lump sum of $328 million before taxes. “We didn’t believe it. We just kept watching TV and going online and rechecking and rechecking”, Smith said.

Smith said she chose the lump sum because of her age, 70. “I lost over 10 pounds, too-it’s a lot of pacing at night”, Kaltschmidt said. “They are very good people, very good friends and neighbors”.

The couple purchased their ticket at a Publix supermarket in Melbourne Beach, a small town of around 3,000 people.

Smith is “afraid it’ll make me less friendly”.

“They’ve been wonderful, dedicated neighbors for over 20 years”, said John Kropp, who lives across the street.

A Tennessee couple with another of the winning tickets quickly came forward last month, announcing they would take their share in an immediate cash payment and planned to keep their jobs.