$2M Powerball Prize Split By 8 North Carolina FedEx Workers

FAYETTEVILLE, NC — Eight North Carolina FedEx workers decided to team up several years ago in an attempt to win a big lottery prize. Their teamwork and persistence paid off this week when they won $2 million in a Powerball drawing, according to the North Carolina Education Lottery.

Michael Walker of Raeford bought the winning ticket at a Harris Teeter grocery store on Raeford Road in Fayetteville. The other members of the group, self-dubbed the Purple 8, include Robert Peterson III of Fayetteville, Phillip Freeman of Rowland, Derick Hunt of Lumberton, John Oxendine of Lumberton, Catherine Simpson of Raeford, Tharp Bordeaux of Elizabethtown and Mickey Sessoms of Marston. The friends work together at FedEx Freight in Hope Mills, a suburb just south of Fayetteville.

"I've been having dreams lately about the winning ticket being sold in Fayetteville," Walker told the lottery. "So I bought at least one ticket in Fayetteville for each drawing."

The $2 million ticket was a Power Play in Monday's drawing. The ticket matched all five white balls, and the Power Play multiplier doubled the $1 million winnings. The group split the prize eight ways with each member taking home $177,525 after tax withholdings.

The $473 million Powerball jackpot was claimed by a ticket in Arizona in Wednesday's drawing, resetting Saturday’s Powerball drawing to a $20 million annuity or $12 million in cash. The odds of winning a Powerball jackpot are 1 in 292 million.