CONCORD — A Cornish couple, one of three winners of the largest jackpot in Tri-State Megabucks history, claimed their first check Monday and immediately headed to a shopping mall.

But before going off to spend some of their share of the $9.7 million jackpot, Keith Jones, 22, and his wife, Sherry, 25, met with reporters at New Hampshire Sweepstakes headquarters.

“We’re riding around in a limo all day and other than that we don’t know,” Keith Jones said when asked how the couple would spend its share of the jackpot. “It’s a big weight off your shoulders. … You can do what you want. You can work at what you want to do.”

Mrs. Jones said she and her husband went to three stores to check the winning numbers before they accepted that they had won the big prize.

Keith Jones said he told his boss at the Claremont junkyard where he works that he wants to quit. Mrs. Jones works in the county commissioners’ office in Newport.

Dave Long, spokesman for the Maine, New Hampshire and Vermont lottery, said the three winning tickets for Saturday’s drawing were sold at a Store 24 in Salem, Pellerin’s Store in Charlestown and a Shop-n-Save in Farmington, Maine. The Jones’ bought their ticket at Pellerin’s.

The other two winners had not yet stepped forward.

The three winners each will receive annual payments of $161,000, less taxes, for 20 years. Owners of the stores that sold the winning tickets will get $30,000 apiece.

Long said the jackpot, which topped the previous record of $9.6 million set in 1986, sent ticket sales soaring.

The winning numbers were: 1-3-13-14-16-19.