Maryland couple claims $1.5m Powerball prize after almost throwing away ticket

A POWERBALL winner who will share in a $1.6 billion jackpot has revealed why you should always listen to your wife.

MORE incredible stories of the winners of Wednesday night’s $US1.6 billion ($2.33 billion) Powerball draw have emerged, with a couple from Maryland in the United States revealing they have a winning ticket.

But the pair — Kathryn and her husband Ricardo — almost lost their winnings before they had a chance to claim them.

The couple, winners of one of the second-tier $US1 million ($1.46 million) Powerball prizes, said that they were planning on throwing away their ‘losing’ tickets after hearing there were no jackpot winners in Maryland.

A co-worker told Kathryn that she may want to check her tickets anyway after hearing a $US1 million winner was sold in their town of Frederick.

That’s the story Kathryn told Maryland lottery officials when they went to claim their prize after the biggest lottery draw in the history of the game.

The couple’s surname has not been revealed because Maryland is one of the six states where winners can remain anonymous. But they did have their photo taken holding an oversized lottery cheque made out for $US1 million.

“I still can’t breath,” Kathryn told lottery officials.

“I checked the ticket and saw that we won,” Kathryn told the Maryland Lottery.

“I went back to the store and had a cashier scan the ticket. When he said that it was too large to cash, I knew it was really happening.”

Lottery officials said the couple told them they have “big but realistic plans for their prize” money. Their plans include starting a college fund for their ten-month-old baby, buying a house, taking a holiday and investing. Ricardo also said that he would like to buy a new truck and splurge on a nice watch.

The three winning jackpot tickets were bought in Tennessee, Florida and California, lottery officials said. And a Tennessee couple claims they have one of them.

Meanwhile, Lisa and John Robinson of Munford, Tennessee, revealed on television on Friday that they held a winning ticket to claim their share of the $US1.6 billion ($2.33 billion) Powerball prize.

John and Lisa Robinson from Tennessee bought a winning Powerball ticket.

Lucky spot ... John and Lisa Robinson from Tennessee bought a winning Powerball ticket here.

NBC’s Today program said the ticket had not yet been officially verified, but the couple said they planned to bring it to lottery officials immediately after the show.

The Robinsons said they had reached out to NBC on the advice of their lawyer, Joe Townsend.

“The American public wants to hear from them,” Townsend said.

Although the couple wants to return to their private lives afterwards, “they want to ... let the public know that they’re the winners.”

John Robinson said that although he did not feel well, he bought the ticket at a local grocery store at his wife’s request on Wednesday night, just hours before the drawing.

The winner ... John and Lisa Robinson’s winning Powerball numbers. Picture: NBC

He said they were excited about their winnings but were “a little scared” about their future.

“Now I’ll be nervous because everybody knows,” he said.

His wife said they had not had any time to think about what they would do with their share of the jackpot prize but that she planned to return to work on Monday.

“We were up all night,” she told NBC. “We didn’t get enough sleep.”

Holders of the Wednesday night drawings’ two other winning tickets, which were sold in California and Florida, have not yet come forward.

On Thursday, two of the non-jackpot winners also came forward: A 25-year-old woman in a suburb of Baltimore won about $US50,000, and another woman in Stafford, Virginia won $US1 million.