A lucky Morrinsville man is $5.5 million richer after winning Lotto - but he didn’t realise it at first because he’d left his ticket in his car’s glovebox for a month.
The man, who wanted to remain anonymous, didn’t check his ticket until Lotto New Zealand approached him last week and told him he’d won the Powerball draw on October 17.
“I never once thought I would be the lucky winner anyway – it’s unbelievable,” the man told Stuff.
He said he was “shocked” when Lotto approached him.
“I just kept thinking, you’ve got to be kidding me … but they weren’t.”
The man added: “Next time I’ll listen to my daughter when she tells me to check my ticket.”
After claiming the prize, the man said he and his family hadn’t decided what to do with the money yet.
But, he said he wanted to make sure the money would help his kids in the future and pay off his mortgage.
Lotto NZ head of communications Marie Winfield said they found the winner through his digital footprint.
“It’s not every day you get to approach someone on the street and tell them that we think they are a multi-millionaire,” she said.
“They said the best thing was seeing the look on the man’s face when he checked the ticket and he realised they weren’t joking, describing it as ‘absolutely priceless.’”
The winning ticket was sold at Paper Plus Morrinsville.
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