Tennessee couple claims they have Powerball jackpot ticket

A couple went on NBC’s “Today” show to claim they have a winning Powerball ticket that was sold in Munford, Tennessee.

John Robinson told Today Show hosts that he was on his way home from work Wednesday night when his wife, Lisa, called to ask if he was going to buy lottery tickets.

Two other winning tickets were sold in Chino Hills, California, and Melbourne Beach, Florida.

Robinson said he and his wife were excited about their winnings but were “a little scared” about their future.

Tiffany Robinson said she wants to pay off her student loans. “I knew that I wanted to get a lawyer and try to follow the procedures that they tell you to follow”.

“I knew that I wanted to get an accountant”.

His potential winning ticket has not yet been verified by Tennessee lottery officials, but news outlets have reported that one of the winners was sold at Naifeh’s in Munford along with one each in Florida and California.

This prize is the largest jackpot in World Lottery history and the fifth Powerball jackpot victor in the state of Tennessee.

A $2 million ticket was also sold in Tennessee. The family said on the Today Show that they planned to officially verify the ticket today.

“We were up all night, ” Lisa said of their reaction Wednesday night.

John, who works at a maintenance distribution center, has kept the ticket on him since Lisa woke him up at 4:30 a.m. on Thursday to say the numbers on one of their tickets were a match for the winning numbers. Lottery spokeswoman Rachel Petrie said she couldn’t confirm the Robinsons had won.

After triple-checking the ticket, she started “hollering and screaming through the hallway saying, ‘You need to check these numbers”.

Should these Powerball winners opt to take the lump-sum payment, the cash value of the $1.58 billion jackpot is $983.5 million.

“We’re hoping that the person, as a local person, would recognize the benefit to be benevolent to the people of the town, to the community”, Cole said. “We didn’t get any sleep”.

“So, I checked them actually four times and I said I’ll believe it when the news comes on in the morning and they say ‘hey, there’s been a victor in Munford, ‘” said John Robinson.

The Robinsons said their attorney advised them to go on national TV first as a way of going public while still controlling the story.

The Robinsons and their daughter hung out on the “Today” show set after their interview.