28 February 2017

Pie pays off for West Auckland Powerball winner

Treating her son to a bakery lunch has paid off for a West Auckland mother who won $3.8 million with Powerball First Division on Saturday.

The winner, who wishes to remain anonymous, bought her winning ticket when she stopped at the shops so her son could pick up a pie for lunch.

“I decided to pop into the Lotto store and get a ticket while my son went to the bakery to get lunch. When I got to the counter I handed the man a $20 note and said ‘give me the luckiest ticket you have, please’,” explained the winner.

As it would turn out, the $20 Lotto Triple Dip was luckier than she ever imagined. But the winner didn’t find out just how lucky she had become until late on Saturday night.

“I was getting ready to go bed when I saw online that a winning ticket was sold at Avondale Foodmarket, but I couldn’t remember the name of the shop I bought my ticket at so I decided to just go to bed,” said the winner.

“But something must have clicked because I couldn’t rest. So I hopped up and grabbed my ticket to give it a quick check, just in case. I didn’t have a pen or anything, but pulled up the winning numbers online and scanned my eyes over the ticket.

“That’s when I saw the numbers lining up on the second-to-bottom line of my ticket. I kept muttering ‘nah, nah’ as I saw each number – then I saw I had the right Powerball number and then I knew I was in trouble,” the winner laughed.

The winner raced out of her bedroom and grabbed her son for a second opinion.

“Mum handed me her phone with the winning numbers and asked me to check her ticket. I checked it a few times, but couldn’t believe what I was seeing. In the end we woke up my girlfriend and asked her to check it for us too,” said the winner’s son.

“They handed me the ticket and I blearily checked the numbers – they were all there. I honestly thought I was still dreaming – she’s a hardworking single Mum, so this really is the kind of thing you dream of someone like her winning,” said his girlfriend.

With the household wide awake, the trio spent the rest of the night sitting in the lounge staring at the winning ticket.

“We weren’t too sure what to think, we were just so stunned! We sat up the whole night, with that winning ticket staring at us from the middle of the table,” said the winner.

Come Sunday morning, the family raced to their local Lotto shop to confirm they really had become overnight millionaires.

With the winnings now safely in the winner’s bank account, she’s looking forward to enjoying her winnings.

“The first thing I’m going to do is pay off the mortgage – and finally buy myself a new fridge,” the winner said.

“I’m not too sure what else I’ll do to be honest, I just know I want to do some good.”

Saturday’s $7 million Powerball jackpot was shared by two lucky Lotto winners from Auckland and Christchurch, who each took home $3.8 million with Lotto Powerball.

The other winning ticket was sold at Wainoni Pak N Save in Christchurch.

ENDS

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