John and Lisa Robinson say they are America’s newest millionaires.
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The winners bought their tickets in the small working class town of Munford, Tennessee; in the quiet Los Angeles suburb of Chino Hills; and at a supermarket in affluent Melbourne Beach, on Florida’s Space Coast.
“I was on my way home from work and she had called me and asked if I was going to stop and get a couple of lottery tickets”, he said.
“I’m a firm believer in tithing to my church”, Robinson said in an appearance on NBC’s “Today” show. John said. “I really didn’t feel like stopping that night, but I was like, ‘Yeah, I’ll stop.’ I came home, and I wasn’t feeling good, and I handed the tickets to her and said, ‘I’m going to go lay down”‘.
Jackpot winners “get a big old target painted on their backs”, said Andrew Stoltmann, an IL attorney who has represented winners.
The three states with Powerball winners from Wednesday’s record $1.6 billion drawing – California, Florida and Tennessee – require winners to disclose their names, which is the policy of most states that play the game. Those tickets have yet to be confirmed, but the winners will share the Powerball jackpot with the Robinsons and also receive $528.8 million either in annual payments over 30 years or as a lump sum. In order for the victor to claim prize, they must show up to a California Lottery office with the original ticket.
Pennsylvania Lottery Powerball players got lucky in last night’s world-record jackpot drawing. MORE: Tennessee man won third of $1.6 billion PowerballIf someone does come forward, they won’t be allowed to stay anonymous, per state law.
The couple, on their lawyer’s advice, agreed to travel to NY on Thursday night to appear on NBC’s Today show early on Friday.
The Robinsons said they have no plans to leave Munford, the town of about 6,000 north of Memphis where they both went to high school. “We just wanted a little big piece of the pie”.
“When we bought the tickets, our first priority was to pay her student loans”, John said.
The Robinsons seemed aware of at least some of the risks, even as they told the world that they were sudden multi-millionaires.
The other two winning tickets were sold in Florida and California.
Spokesman Josh Nass says he was told the nurse’s son sent her a cellphone picture of a ticket.
Ticket sales and payouts had risen steadily since November 4, when the jackpot amount was reset at $40 million.
The holder of the jackpot-winning ticket had not been officially identified Friday morning.
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He did, four times, then thought: “Well, I’ll believe it when the news comes on in the morning”.
