Powerball: Tenn. Couple Claim To Have Won…

Lottery authority in the USA state of Tennessee verified Friday that a couple from the small town of Munford had claimed one third of the world-record 1.6-billion-U.S.-dollar Powerball jackpot.

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

“That’s what we’ve done all our lives, is work”, John Robinson said. “But you have to clean them”, John Robinson said.

The winning tickets were bought at a 7-Eleven in Chino Hills, Calif.; Naifeh’s Food Mart in Munford, Tenn.; and a Publix grocery in Melbourne Beach, Fla., USA Today reported.

The amount will be split equally between three, still officially unknown, ticket-holders – who are believed to have lottery tickets purchased in the states of Tennessee, California and Florida.

A Tennessee man said he was “a little scared” after realising he was one of three winners in the world record $1.6bn (£1.1bn) USA lottery jackpot.

The law in Tennessee stipulates that the victor has to come in person with the ticket in their hand and identification of the person who bought it, which the Robinsons have not done yet.

They fought the odds of 1 in 292.2 million to land on all the numbers: 4-8-19-27-34 and Powerball 10. They’ll share the $1.6 billion prize after the lottery game in 44 USA states didn’t have any winners for two straight months. “The American public wants to hear from them”, the lawyer said.

After learning of the Robinsons’ claim, Cole told the AP on Friday that they are not the kind of family to squander their money. When he got home, he gave the tickets to his wife and went to lie down. Asked how she felt, Lisa Robinson said, “Like Christmas morning; like a big kid”.

“While no one hit the jackpot prize, New Yorkers are vastly richer thanks to Wednesday’s historic Powerball drawing”, said Gardner Gurney, director of the Division of the Lottery.

With his appearance on the “Today Show“, John, who is listed as an engineer at Logical Systems, expressed a bit of trepidation that everyone will now know of his fortune, thanks to the media.

John Robinson works in information technology and his wife is employed at a dermatologist’s office. Neither of the owners of those tickets had come forward to claim the prize money as of today.

Crowds descended on the California store after word emerged it had sold a winning ticket, with excited customers snapping pictures and congratulating the sales associate.