24-year-old claims $768m Powerball prize and quits job: 'I started screaming'

The winning numbers were 16, 20, 37 44, and 62

A 24-year-old man from Wisconsin is $768m richer after claiming the Powerball jackpot Tuesday.

Manuel Franco, from West Allis, accepted the nation’s third-largest jackpot after nearly a month, choosing to take a lump sum payment.

According to Franco, he found out he’d won while sorting through multiple lottery tickets, when he happened to glance at his Powerball ticket and realised the first two numbers matched, as did the Powerball number.

“I was going insane,” Franco said of the realisation he’d won, CBS reports. “I looked back at the three other numbers, they all matched. My heart started racing, my blood started pumping, I felt warm. I started screaming.”

Although Franco declined to answer questions during a press conference about his career prior to winning, he did reveal that he quit his job two days after he won.

The winning ticket was sold at a Speedway on 27 March. Franco’s win comes nearly two years after the last Wisconsin Powerball win in 2017.

As for his plans for the money, which he will receive in a lump sum $477m cash option, Franco announced he would be contributing some of his winnings to charity.

He also said he has already started taking safety precautions.

“I’m not sure what the next chapter is gonna bring for my life, but I have been setting up the best legal team,” he said.

In Wisconsin, winners of the Powerball cannot remain anonymous.