LINCOLN, Neb. — Eight second- and third-shift workers at Cook’s food-processing plant threw $5 into a lottery ticket pool at work and came out millionaires, winning the largest Powerball jackpot in history.

They are a melting pot of America: two are refugees from Vietnam who have lived in Lincoln for 16 years. One is a young political refugee whose family fled its civil war-torn home in central Africa in 1999. Five are married, four have children. Three are single. Seven are men. One is a woman.

They are supervisors and maintenance workers who spent a total of $40 on lottery tickets Friday afternoon at 3:09 p.m. and on Wednesday morning found themselves staring at a bank of television cameras at the Cornhusker Hotel, looking for words to describe the past four days.

“We’re still thinking we’re going to wake up from a dream,” said Chasity Rutjens, 29, the only woman in the group.

“You always think ‘geez, it would be nice not to work any more,’ but it’s a lot different when it happens. We’ll see how it turns out.”

Hordes of local and national reporters have camped out for three days in Lincoln, chasing rumors and waiting for the winners to come forward.

On Wednesday, yellow and red balloons, tables of bagels and wall-to-wall cameras welcomed them at the Cornhusker Hotel ballroom, where Gov. Dave Heineman introduced them to the world.

“Life just got a bit more interesting for eight Nebraskans,” he said.

The other winners, who filed onto a makeshift stage one by one are: Quang Dao, 56; David Gehle, 53; Alain Maboussou, 26; Robert Stewart, 30; Michael Terpstra, 47; Dung Tran, 34; Eric Zornes, 40.

The winners have chosen the cash option and will take the money in one lump sum. The cash option is $177.3 million, or $124.1 million after taxes.

Each winner receives $22 million, which will amount to $15.5 million after taxes are withheld.

On Wednesday, some of the winners sported black shades, some carried water bottles onto stage and some of the millionaires had just finished their latest shift at Cook’s four hours earlier.

Tran bought the winning ticket for his co-workers on Friday at 3:09 p.m. from the U-Stop at 110 W. O St. He kept it until the winners turned it into lottery officials on Tuesday.

“I held onto ticket,” said Tran, who wore a red Huskers stocking cap. “I can’t sleep. I scared.”

The winners described how they realized they were winners, either seeing the numbers themselves or getting calls from their fellow winners.

On Sunday, they started flipping through a phone book, looking for an attorney.

They called Jim Hoppe, who happened to be in his office, and asked him to draw up an agreement for them.

“If you stay in the office after normal hours, strange things can happen,” Hoppe said.

The group was fairly quiet about exactly where they’d been the last four days, other than in hiding, running from the media.

Zornes hinted, though, that they stayed at the Cornhusker at least part of the time.

“We probably ate breakfast with you a couple of times and you didn’t know that,” Zornes said to the crowd of reporters and photographers.

The two Vietnamese workers said a few words in their native tongue at the request of a CNN reporter who said his network was going live and had a translator standing by.

Here’s what the winners, who each took a turn at the podium, had to say, about themselves and their winnings:

n Rob Stewart, 30 — He participated in the workplace pool for four years and has been a maintenance worker at Cook’s for eight years. He is married.

“I didn’t know what to think,” he said.

What’s he going to do with his money?

“I have no idea.

n Eric Zornes, 40 — He is a second-shift maintenance mechanic who has worked at Cook’s for 10 years. He’s been in the pool about five years. He is married and has two children.

“They’re probably getting mauled at school,” he said.

He had just come home from a losing trip to the casinos when he found the winning numbers his wife had taped to a chair.

“I had to wake them all up,” he said of his family.

n Dung Tran, 34 — Tran came to Lincoln from Vietnam as a refugee 16 years ago and has worked at Cook’s for those 16 years. He is married and has one son.

How does he feel about winning?

“I happy,” Tran said.

He said he’ll stop working for awhile and spend time with his family and then he expects to “go back to work again.”

n Chasity Rutjens, 29 — She is a second-shift packaging supervisor who has worked at Cook’s for 9-1/2 years. It’s only the third time she’s participated in the pool.

Is she married?

“No, it’s all mine,” she said.

She said the winners are friends who have worked together for a long time.

“We haven’t had much time to think about what we wanted to do. Just thinking about getting that ticket turned in,” Rutjens said.

“Trying to grasp the fact we’re millionaires now,” she said.

Does she have concerns about winning so much money?

“No, I just want to make sure it lasts me the rest of my life. So I don’t have to go back to work.”

n Michael Terpstra, 47 — He is a third-shift plant supervisor in charge of sanitation who has worked at Cook’s for 16 years. He’s been in the lottery pool about four years. He is not married. He was born in Iowa, grew up in York and moved to Lincoln in 1976.

He plans to stay here.

“Other than the smoking ban, I like it,” he said.

Other than that, he said, he doesn’t know what he’ll do.

“I’m just trying to get through the day,” he said.

What’s it been like?

“I have been able to sleep,” he said. “I just can’t eat.”

He didn’t bother to look at the tickets and didn’t believe his fellow winners at first when they called.

He’d thought about winning before, but not seriously.

“Everybody has dreams,” he said. “Did I really believe it? No. What are you going to do? Buy an island, buy a plane. Reality? I don’t like flying and I’m not really fond of water.”

n Quang Dao, 56 — He’s a third-shift sanitation worker who has worked for Cook’s for 15 years. He is married with four sons and one daughter. He left Vietnam for America in October 1988.

“I come here to be free,” he said.

And Nebraska?

“I feel Nebraska good for me,” he said.

Dao said he might retire and then go back to work “for his amusement.”

“I don’t know what’s going on in my future.”

n Alain Maboussou, 26 — He is a second-shift maintenance mechanic who is married and has a 3-month-old daughter.

He and his family fled their home in Congo Brazaville on Sept. 20, 1999, in the midst of a civil war.

He worked 70-75 hours a week at Cook’s, making going to school too hard.

Now, he’d like to go back and major in accounting or business administration.

“Man, I’m so excited,” he said.

“It’s too early for me to retire but I did,” he said.

He’d fallen asleep on the couch when his wife woke him up Sunday, wondering if he had to work because his co-worker had called “like 20 times.”

He wasn’t sure whether to believe Stewart, on the other end of the phone, but decided to meet them all at the plant and find out.

Now what?

“It’s a bunch of money. I need to sit down with family and friends and figure it all out.

n David Gehle, 53 — He’s a third-shift supervisor who has worked at Cook’s for 20 years. He’s been in the pool four or five years. He’s a native of Lincoln and is unmarried.

And the millionaire has kept on working, finishing his latest shift early Wednesday morning.

He and a couple of other winners have been around the plant to help, he said.

Why? asked the reporters from California to New York.

“They would have been short of help,” he said. “The managers, we think a lot of them. ... We couldn’t just leave them.”

It’s hard to believe what’s happened, he said.

“You never dream of something like this happening,” he said. “It’s amazing. I never thought we could win a Powerball.”

There are good people who work at Cook’s, he told the crowd at the Cornhusker.

“These people here are a good sample of it.”

What next? Well, at 10 p.m., he’s got to be at work.

“So I need to get some sleep.”

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