A Bronx, N.Y., native and current Stone Mountain, Ga., resident is flush after confirming that she is one of the two winners of the $648 million Mega Millions jackpot.
Ira Curry, 56, came forward to reveal that she was a winner and is expected to take in a cool $120 million after taxes, Georgia Lottery Corporation president and CEO Debbie Alford said at a press conference from Atlanta, the New York Daily News reports.
Curry, an insurance company underwriter and married mom, used a series of family birthdays and the family's lucky number, seven, as the numbers on the winning ticket. She was driving when the winning numbers were announced, so she only caught part of the sequence on her car radio. She phoned her daughter to hear the rest of the digits, Alford told the Daily News.
Curry’s daughter read the rest of the winning numbers through "joyful tears and laughter," Alford said.
"I asked her how she kept from veering off the road, and she said she was just in a state of disbelief," Alford said.
Curry has not spoken with the press as it appears she is trying to remain behind the scenes for now. A Facebook page that is believed to be Curry's has been deactivated.
The massive windfall hasn't been all joyous, as Curry's sisters who live in the Bronx in public housing told the Daily News that they were afraid that their sister's win could cause them trouble.
"We’re happy, but look at where we live," said Curry's sister, Brenda Baker, motioning to the public housing building that she has lived in for 40 years. "Our lives could be in jeopardy. It’s happy, it’s joyous, but we have to protect ourselves."
By Wednesday afternoon, the sisters were making rushed plans to move, the Daily News reports.
Read more at the New York Daily News.