LANSING (WKZO-AM) — A Three Rivers mother and grandmother who worked at a fiberglass bathtub factory has turned in her winning lottery ticket, claiming a $310 million jackpot.
Julie Leach, 50, will buy land in Michigan and build a home after hitting the Powerball and opting to take the $197 million lump sum. She claimed her winnings in Lansing on Tuesday.
“I’m going to take care of my kids,” Leach told reporters. “I don’t want them to work like I had to work and deal with the kind of things that I had to deal with over life.”
Leach said she noticed she was a millionaire while on break from her third-shift job at Aquatics, waiting for her food from a McDonald’s drive-through.
“I thought, ‘Well, I might as well check my numbers while I’m sitting here waiting for my lunch,’” Leach said. “That’s when I realized I was the winner.”
She then tendered her resignation.
“I quit automatically,” Leach said.
– Anthony Pollreisz
