Powerball winners share with newest employee

PLANTATION, Fla. -- A dozen real estate agents who won $1 million in the Powerball are paying it forward and sharing part of their prize with a new employee who opted out of joining the South Florida agency's office pool.

"The way we are as a group, we absolutely would not want anyone to ever feel left out," team leader Laurie Finkelstein Reader said yesterday.

The 12 agents at Keller Williams Partners Realty in Plantation joined the office pool for Saturday's drawing, pitching in $20 each.

Employee No. 13, Jennifer Maldonado, started her job March 8 and decided not to join the pool until she received her first paycheck.

"I said to her, 'Jen, if you don't play, we are definitely going to win,' " Finkelstein Reader recalled. "And her response was, 'I'll take the fall for you guys.' And look what happened -- we hit the Powerball." The team of 12 matched five numbers, but not the Powerball, and Finkelstein Reader said they expect to take home about $83,000 each.

"I don't feel like I deserve the money at all," Maldonado said. "I just stopped crying five minutes ago. It was a very emotional experience to learn that I had a chance at a piece of a million dollars and I just let it slide right through my fingers."

Finkelstein Reader said the decision to include Maldonado was easy for her and her team. "We are all kind of taken back that everybody wouldn't do this, right? Because this is what you are supposed to do," she said. -- AP