Tennessee lottery officials drove from Nashville to Munford on Thursday to present the store’s owners with a $25,000 check.
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Watch the “Today Show” interview here.
John Robinson says he bought the ticket and three others Wednesday night while on the way home. He said didn’t want to, but he did anyway.
But John Robinson and his wife, Lisa, said they won’t stop working and won’t make any wild purchases.
“I’m feeling very great, excited, and thanks to the customer who come here in my store and bought the ticket”, he said.
The law in their state says that the victor must come in person with the ticket in hand along with the identification of the person who bought it. They said they planned to go back to Tennessee after appearing on the show.
He’s now an admitted believer.
“I’ll be there Monday”, Lisa said after calling her supervisor to tell her to tune in to TODAY.
“We just wanted a little big piece of the pie”, Lisa Robinson said.
They will pay off their two children’s student loans as well as their own mortgage and, after investing the rest of their new-found fortune, keep living in the same home, with the same jobs, in the Memphis suburb of Munford. He says they appreciate community, family values and have always lived within their means.
But they shouldn’t wait too long: California gives its top winners up to a year to contact lottery officials before the money automatically goes to schools.
“Sallie Mae’s paid off”, she said, laughing.
The jackpot from Wednesday night’s drawing will be split by winners in Tennessee (Robinson family), California and Florida.
Jim and Lisa Robinson had one of the three lucky tickets for the $1.6 billion jackpot. News of a victor in California was quickly deflated Friday when that feel-good tale was described as a prank.
According to NBC, “the chances of winning were 1 in 292.2 million, and there were 635,103,137 total tickets sold”. They have chose to take the lump sum, which comes out to about $328 million before taxes.
After Wednesday night’s drawing, group member Angel Lawrence (left) checked their numbers from copies she’d made of their tickets. If no one claims their prize by 180 days, that money goes to Lottery fund for scholarships and after school programs.
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Too many lottery winners unaccustomed to sudden wealth have gone bankrupt, been victimized by criminals or experienced other losses because they were unprepared for an onslaught of attention, said Andrew Stoltmann, an IL attorney who has represented winners. The $2 million victor is taking a page out of the $1.5 billion winner’s playbook: both have thus far remained anonymous.
