Ticket bought at porn shop worth $129M

Sat Nov 13, 9:52 AM

By Tim Martin, The Associated Press

ADVERTISEMENT

LANSING, Mich. - A group of friends and family is obscenely rich after winning a nearly $129 million jackpot with a lottery ticket bought at a Detroit-area porn shop. And some of the money will be devoted to sacred purposes.

Mike Greer, a member of the group, came forward Friday to claim the Powerball winnings on behalf of the others, who chose to remain anonymous.

Greer — who said only that the group has more than two members and fewer than 100 — indicated some of the riches will be going to a church.

"The only thing I can assume is that the Lord trusted us to do certain things with the money that He bestowed upon us," he said. "That's the only thing that I can gather."

Greer said he didn't buy the ticket himself and doesn't know whether it was purchased inside the Uptown Bookstore or at its outside, walk-up lottery window. And he said that among the group's members, "nobody cares" where it was bought.

Many customers of the adult bookstore in a depressed section of Highland Park buy their lottery tickets without setting foot inside the place and getting an eyeful of its X-rated videos and magazines.

The group will take its winnings in a lump sum of $69.6 million instead of annual instalments.

Greer, a 49-year-old from Farmington Hills, said he is self-employed in the digital imaging business. He would not give details on the others except to say that most are from the Detroit metropolitan area.

Lucky winners!