A NEWCASTLE man has had the best surprise of all, becoming a millionaire after finding a year-old winning lottery ticket while cleaning out his car.
The man, who chose to remain anonymous, claimed a division one prize of $1,020,496.38 at the weekend – a ticket he purchased from the Marketown shopping centre newsagent on January 9, 2016.
The win followed a campaign by NSW Lotteries urging Novocastrians to check their tickets as the prize continued to be unclaimed.
The happy winner admitted he had been “a bit stupid” by misplacing and forgetting about his ticket for 414 days.
“I line the bottom of my reusable Aldi shopping bags with old beer cartons to give them some strength. The ticket was hidden underneath it and I didn’t know it was there!” he explained.
“I was cleaning rubbish out of my car on the weekend and thought it was time to put new cartons in the bottom of my bags as they were starting to get torn and I got quite the surprise!
“I”m glad I didn’t just get the old bags and take them to the dump!
“I’ve done some pretty stupid things in my time!”
The man said he would use the windfall to help his children and grandchildren.
“There’s a few people who are going to benefit from this. I want to help the kids with their house payments and the grandkids with their education.
“It will smooth the troubled water in front of them.”
Nextra Marketown Newsagency owner Cheryl Tuckerman said the store was “over the moon” with their customer’s win.
“You wouldn’t believe how many customers we’ve had coming in the past year asking whether the winner had been found,” she said.
The man wasn’t fazed by the fact he could have been a millionaire a year ago, saying “at least I’ve got it now”.
The winning numbers in Saturday Lotto draw 3597 on January 9 last year were: 20, 25, 36, 30, 18 and 2, with the supplementary numbers 5 and 11.
