Tennessee couple claims to be winners of historic Powerball jackpot: media reports

John and Lisa Robinson, along with their daughter Tiffany – and their lawyer, Joe Townsend and his daughter Ilene – were featured on the Today Show segment.

The workers pooled their ticket purchases and claimed the prize at Kentucky Lottery headquarters in Louisville on Thursday afternoon, lottery officials said Friday morning.

One reason to be suspicious of the family’s claim: The Robinsons said that they were headed directly to the lottery commission after appearing on the Today Show.

“I’ll be there Monday, ” she said after calling her supervisor to tell her to tune in toToday.

When the drawing came on at 11 p.m., Lisa wrote down the numbers, then checked them against the four in her hand, and thought she had a victor. After triple-checking the ticket, she started “hollering and screaming through the hallway saying, ‘You need to check these numbers. ‘John, John, you’ve got to check these numbers!’ And I startled him because he was asleep on the couch”.

John Robinson said he wasn’t nervous traveling or walking around NY with the piece of paper, worth multimillions, because no one knew he had it. The mother of two said she had always hoped for smaller jackpots when playing the lottery because she never sought out a lavish lifestyle in the past and “I don’t really want that now”.

“When I heard about the billion dollar Powerball jackpot, I made a decision to try my luck and buy a ticket”, said Walker.

Lottery officials are confirming that a Tennessee couple has one of the three winning Powerball tickets for the $1.6 billion jackpot.

Lisa Robinson works for a dermatologist and John is an engineer. “We didn’t get enough sleep”.

The family drove to their daughter’s home to tell her the news.

Robinson said he stopped at Naifeh’s Wednesday night, went home, handed the ticket to his wife and went to lay down because he wasn’t feeling well. Florida gives winners six months to come forward before transferring 80 percent of unclaimed prizes to an educational trust fund, and 20 percent into a pool for future lottery prizes. NBC says they’ll receive roughly $327.8 million after taxes if they take the lump-sum payment.

The two other winning tickets were sold in Chino Hills, California, and Melbourne Beach, Florida, but the winners there have not been named.

Staff members, who had not played together prior to Wednesday’s Powerball drawing, each kicked in $5.