The Palmerston North man who won a massive $10.2 million Lotto Powerball jackpot on Saturday night nearly missed out on his prize after mis-checking his ticket the first time around.
According to a Lotto NZ release the man, who wishes to remain anonymous, then checked his ticket after seeing it had been won in Feilding on Facebook.
"When I saw that Powerball had been won in Fielding, I was really excited. It was even more exciting to read that it had been sold at the same store I had bought my ticket at," said the winner.
The young man then grabbed his ticket and asked his partner to read out the winning numbers.
"I glanced down at the ticket, but couldn’t see any of the numbers she was reading out so thought 'oh bugger, it wasn’t me' and got on with the day," he said.
Luckily the man kept his ticket and after thinking he may have missed something decided to check the ticket again later in the day.
"I’d only glanced at the ticket the first time, so this time I checked the numbers line by line. Sure enough half way down the ticket, all the numbers lined up perfectly.
"I just turned to my partner and said 'oh, I did win'. I don’t think she believed me at first – to be honest, I couldn’t really believe it either. Our minds were blown."
The first thing the lucky winner did was call his parents to share the good news and a celebratory party then ensued with his family at his parents house.
"Mum had pulled out all the stops – she’d whipped up French toast and had a cold beer waiting for me. I couldn’t believe she’d pulled it all together so quickly!
"Everyone was so excited, it’s got to be the most memorable breakfast I’ve ever had," said the winner.
When asked how he will spend his $10 million prize the man said: "For now, I am going to tuck most of it away and take some time to think about what I want to do next. I feel very, very lucky."
The winning ticket was sold at Fielding Video Centre in Fielding for the Lotto draw on Saturday 26 January.
SHARE ME