Man Springs $500,000 Shared Lotto Win Surprise On Colleague
A Wellington man and his work colleague, who have been buying Lotto tickets together for four years, can’t believe their luck after their ticket won $500,000 with Lotto First Division last week.
The pair, who wish to remain anonymous, have always chosen a Dip ticket while keeping the same Powerball number.
“But about three weeks ago, we decided to change our routine and pick our own numbers. So, we chose half the numbers each and thought we’d see how we got on,” said the man.
On Wednesday night it was his turn to check the numbers, and as he tuned in to watch the live Lotto draw, he sat speechless as all six of their new shared numbers came up.
“I checked the ticket again and again and asked my wife to check as well. When it dawned on us that the ticket was a winner, we cracked open a bottle of Baileys with our son, and called our daughter, who shared a drink over the phone with us!”
As it was late at night by then he stashed the ticket safely away in his wallet and started to plan how he would surprise his colleague the next day.
“The next morning I popped into my local Lotto store on the way to work and confirmed our win. When I got to work and saw my colleague, I couldn’t hold it in. I pulled her aside and shared the news right then and there. The look on her face was priceless!”
“She was absolutely over the moon. We’d joked over the years that our Lotto ticket had occasionally won us what we called, ‘petrol money’, so to share this big win together was neat!”
The winning Lotto First Division ticket was sold at New World Newlands in Wellington for the draw on Wednesday 11 May.