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Georgia couple wins $270 million lottery
First priority: Moving out of their trailer home
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$270 million jackpot Feb. 24: Robert and Tonya Harris of Portal, Ga., hold the single winning ticket for the big prize in the Mega Millions lottery. MSNBC |
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ATLANTA - An iron worker and his wife presented the winning ticket for a $275 million Mega Millions jackpot on Monday and said they'll use part of the windfall to replace their trailer home with a new house in coastal Georgia.
Robert Harris said he picked the winning numbers from Friday's multistate drawing — 7, 12, 13, 19 and 22, plus the Mega Ball number 10 — by using his grandchildren's birthdays.
"It's awesome," Harris, 47, told a room full of reporters after receiving the ceremonial big check from lottery officials. "We have been very blessed."
The jackpot is the single largest in the history of the 15-year-old Georgia Lottery and the third largest in Mega Millions history, lottery officials said.
Besides building a house near the town of Portal, Harris and his wife, Tonya, said they plan to buy a new four-wheel-drive truck first thing Tuesday morning. Other plans include sending their grandchildren to college, Tonya Harris said.
"We're not gonna change," she said, wearing warm-up pants and flip-flops. "I'm too country."
The couple spent Sunday night at the Ritz-Carlton in Atlanta before arriving at the lottery headquarters to claim their prize.
They said they were deciding whether to take the lump sum — $167 million before taxes — or annual payments.
A year ago, Ed Nabors from Rocky Face, Ga., won half of a $390 million Mega Millions jackpot — the richest lottery prize in U.S. history. The other half was claimed by Elaine and Harold Messner, a couple from Cape May County in New Jersey.
Mega Millions tickets are sold in California, Georgia, Illinois, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, New Jersey, New York, Ohio, Texas, Virginia and Washington state. The twice-weekly drawing is done in Atlanta.
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