Community Corner

WATCH: Wild Powerball Celebration -- Until Workers Realize They Read Wrong 'Winning' Numbers

Workers at Grissini's Restaurant in Englewood Cliffs thought they won Saturday's jackpot, but their numbers matched the previous drawing.


ENGLEWOOD CLIFFS, NJ – Pandemonium ensued Saturday at a North Jersey restaurant, where dozens of employees thought they won the record-breaking Powerball jackpot.

The short-lived celebration unfolded at Grissini’s Restaurant and was captured in three videos shared by the restaurant on YouTube. In the videos, employees can be seen celebrating and shouting — one person even quit — after the 42 workers thought they matched the winning Powerball numbers on a group lottery ticket.

There was one problem, though.

They read the wrong day’s winning numbers. Their ticket had the numbers 2, 11, 47, 62, 63, and a Powerball of 17. It exactly matched Wednesday’s $528 million prize, not Saturday’s $900 million.

RELATED: $1.5B Powerball Drawing Wednesday: Get Ticket Info, Results Here

It’s unknown what prompted the employee to recite the wrong numbers to his coworkers. But whether it was a mistake or a prank, the end result was mayhem.

Video from the restaurant shows servers, bartenders, and cooks celebrating after unknowingly reading off the wrong day’s winning numbers. When the Powerball number was read, pandemonium breaks out. Another video shows people jumping up and down and hugging.

RELATED: ‘Winning’ Powerball Workers Try To Win Jackpot Again

Bartender Charlie Poveromo, in sheer excitement, shed tears of joy. A dishwasher quit his job. Deiago Moreno called his grandmother in Colombia to share the good news after he told a customer to get their own car because he just won the lottery, restaurant representatives said.


Poveromo, who has worked at Grissini for 12 years, is still reeling from the excitement of the whole experience.

”I still can’t believe it, what a feeling,” he said.

It is not shown in either video when the workers realized they hadn’t won.

No one won the $900 million prize, which caused the jackpot to grow to an all-time high of $1.5 billion.

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