However, the screams of celebrations quickly went silent in Englewood Cliffs Saturday after realizing the Grissini Ristorante bartender had read the winning numbers from the previous drawing. Watch video
ENGLEWOOD CLIFFS -- For 20 minutes they were filthy rich, or so they believed.
The staff of a North Jersey Italian eatery apparently thought they had become a bunch of millionaires Saturday after matching all six Powerball numbers for the almost $1 billion jackpot.
The servers, bartenders, cooks and other employees can be seen hugging and jumping for joy in two videos posted to the Grissini Ristorante's YouTube page -- one dishwasher even quit, according to the restaurant.
And the valet with the golden ticket? He told a customer to pull around his own car since he was a millionaire now.
The restaurant called it "pure pandemonium," on social media.
But the screams of celebrations quickly went silent in Englewood Cliffs after realizing bartender Charlie Poveromo had read the winning numbers from the previous drawing.
Poveromo's told NJ Advance Media his friend had sent him Saturday's numbers from the Powerball website just after the 11 p.m. drawing. But apparently the site hadn't updated the winning numbers.
The ticket that the staff purchased in a lottery pool included the numbers 2, 11, 47, 62, 63 and a Powerball pick of 17 -- the same numbers pulled in the Wednesday Jan. 6 drawing, which were still listed as the winning numbers on the site minutes after the Saturday drawing.
Here is the Ticket- a perfect match to Wednesday January 9th!
Posted by Grissini Ristorante on Tuesday, January 12, 2016
Here is the Ticket- a perfect match to Wednesday January 9th!
Posted by Grissini Ristorante on Tuesday, January 12, 2016"I dropped my phone I was shaking so bad," Poveromo said after the valet told him the numbers on one of their tickets. "I finally found (my phone) and by that time there was already a buzz in the restaurant. People were crying and everything."
Poveromo said no one realized they had the wrong numbers for 15 to 20 minutes.
The restaurant's publicist Angela Thomas, who runs a marketing shop in town, said the blunder was by no means a publicity stunt, but someone still may have played a cruel joke on the restaurant staff.
Despite the let down, the staff will take another shot at the Powerball on Wednesday as the Jackpot swells to $1.5 billion.
They've already picked up more than $400 worth of tickets, Poveromo said.
Craig McCarthy may be reached at CMcCarthy@njadvancemedia.com. Follow him on Twitter @createcraig. Find NJ.com on Facebook.
