Lotto Winner’s Family In Danger?

A Bronx native will take the money after she won half of the $648 million Mega Millions jackpot — and her sisters back home say they’re going to run.

Georgia resident Ira Curry, 56, has come forward as one of the two winners who will take home a massive chunk of the lottery windfall.

Curry will take the cash option and, after taxes, will rake in about $120 million, Georgia Lottery Corporation president and CEO Debbie Alford said at a press conference from Atlanta on Wednesday.

 “They were very, very excited about the win,” she said. “They’re still in a state of shock.”

Curry did not know of her win until this morning. She heard on the radio that the Mega Ball number was 7, the one she had picked, Alford said. Curry called her daughter, who read off 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.

But the payday, while spectacularly exciting, is sending her sisters scurrying from the spotlight — and the Boogie Down borough.

“I’m stunned,” Curry’s sister, Jalunda Baker Price, told the Daily News inside her first-floor apartment in Lambert Houses on E. 179th St. “It’s just really hitting me, like it’s really true.”

Curry, an insurance company underwriter, now lives in Stone Mountain, Ga. But her Bronx brethren — Price and another sister, Brenda Baker, who still live in the apartment they all moved into 40 years ago — played a part in her unexpected bonanza. The married mom bought one ticket, using a combination of Baker family birthdays and the family’s lucky number, seven.

Curry came forward with her golden ticket around 11 a.m. Wednesday, 12 hours after the drawing. The shocking win unsettled her sisters.

 They told The News they’re thrilled for Curry, but worried about the sudden attention. By Wednesday afternoon, the frantic sisters were making rushed plans to move, possibly even out-of-state.

“We’re happy, but look at where we live,” said Brenda Baker, motioning to the public housing building. “Our lives could be in jeopardy. It’s happy, it’s joyous, but we have to protect ourselves.”

Though Curry now lives like “a Southern belle” in her Atlanta suburb, her sisters said, they were all raised by a single mother in West Farms.

“My mother raised us by herself,” said Price, 48. “We’re very close. (Curry) is a Southern belle. She looks just like Halle Berry. She shares, she’s really nice. She’s such a sweet lady, she deserves the money.”

After Curry heard on the radio that the Mega ball number was 7, she immediately called her daughter, Georgia Lottery Corp. president Debbie Alford said.

 Curry’s excited daughter read off the rest of the winning numbers through “joyful tears and laughter,” Alford said.

The new multimillionaire’s sisters are still awaiting details.

 “She only had time to call us this morning to let us know,” said Price. “We really haven’t talked about it.”

Curry, who couldn’t be reached for comment, will split the jackpot with a California winner who has yet to come forward.

Records show the lucky player and her husband, Talmer Curry, 74, filed for Chapter 13 bankruptcy in 1994. That type of bankruptcy filing allows the debtor to repay creditors in installments over three to five years. The case was discharged in 1999.

Curry bought her ticket at Gateway News, in Atlanta, but the owners won’t receive any bonus for selling the winning ticket because of Georgia state lottery rules.

The winning numbers were: 8, 14, 17, 20, 39; Mega Ball: 7.

The jackpot was the second-largest lottery prize in U.S. history.