Powerball ticket buyers: Quit job, give to charity

A mere 10 minutes inside the Quik Trip on Ingersoll Avenue on Tuesday yielded five Powerball ticket purchasers: a judge, a criminal defense attorney, the president of a hockey team, a mother and an exterminator.

But dreams of fortune were split between charity and retirement.

Take Todd Frederickson, for example. Frederickson, president of Iowa Wild hockey team, popped in the store around 9:30 a.m. bearing his team's logo and $10 for five Powerball tickets.

"I mean it's $1.4 billion, you can't pass up that opportunity to make a lot of money," Frederickson said, about an hour before the jackpot rose to $1.5 billion. "It's exciting too. It seems like everybody is doing it."

The drawing for the record-breaking jackpot is at 9:59 p.m. Wednesday.

If he won the jackpot, Frederickson said he probably wouldn't show up to work Thursday.

Kelly Burton, a local exterminator from Urbandale, was with Frederickson on that one.

"I'd probably quit working," Burton, a first-time Powerball ticket buyer, said with a laugh. After thinking on it, Burton added that he'd put money toward his kids and his church.

Powerball fever boosts ticket sellers

Dave Cimaglia, general manager at the Ingersoll Quik Trip location, said he expects Wednesday to be much, much busier at his counter.

"When the jackpot gets big like this, you'll see a lot of businesses come in and throw own $2 each to buy a bunch of tickets, so if they win there won't be anybody left working there," Cimaglia joked. "We just have to make sure we have plenty of supplies."

It wasn't criminal defense attorney Van Plumb's first Powerball rodeo. After buying five Power Play tickets, Plumb said he'd open up a trust to fund projects within the city of Des Moines if he won.

Iowa ticket fetches $1 million in Powerball

Luz Hidalgo, a mother from the east side of Des Moines, bought five but chose her numbers — ones she felt were lucky.

"I would share the winnings with my family," Hidalgo said, adding that she'd also like to donate to an children's cancer organization that helped one of her family members.