Imagine being a millionaire for two months and not knowing about it. That was one Ruapehu man’s reality until late last week when he received a phone call from Lotto NZ.

In mid-September, the man logged into his MyLotto account to grab a ticket before the draw that night – and that was the last time he logged in until he received a call from Lotto NZ’s Winner’s team almost two months later.

“I usually buy my ticket from my local store – I like to support them, but that night I had left it too late to get there, so I quickly logged in and bought my ticket online.

“I don’t usually use MyLotto, so I completely forgot that I had a ticket on there. I probably wouldn’t have checked it till the next time I left it too late to get to the shop,” he joked.

But a phone call late last week prompted him to log in and check his ticket.

“I got a call from Lotto NZ, and they asked if I had checked my online tickets recently – to be honest I was a bit confused why they were calling me.

“After the call I began to think ‘surely they wouldn’t call me unless I’d won a prize – and they wouldn’t bother if it was only a few hundred dollars,’” said the man.

After arriving home from a long day, it wasn’t until the next morning he remembered the phone call.

“I logged into my account and the virtual draw started to play… one number circled, then two, three, four, and before I knew it the winning music played, and my ticket had a rather large figure at the top of it.

“I had to refocus my glasses,” he laughed. “I read the number as $1 million, and my heart skipped a beat – I was absolutely ecstatic!”

The man called Lotto NZ back to confirm it was correct.

“I don’t think I really believed it, so I called the woman I had spoken to the day before. When she answered I told her who I was, and she laughed and said ‘ahh yes, I’ve been waiting for you to call, how are you feeling?’ – that’s when I knew it was real.”

With his win now claimed, and safely in his bank account, the man cooked up a plan to tell his partner the good news.

“She’s been working incredibly hard, so I think I’m going to whisk her away to Taupō for a nice weekend away and some spa treatments – I don’t know how I’ll tell her yet – but I’m sure I’ll find the perfect moment,” he said.

The man is planning to use his winnings to travel overseas and buy some new toys.

Notes for editors:

• The winning Lotto First Division ticket was sold on MyLotto for the draw on Wednesday 14 September.
• The winner would like to remain anonymous and does not wish to provide any further comment at this stage.
• Because the man bought his ticket on MyLotto, Lotto NZ’s Winner’s team were able to use his MyLotto account details to contact him.
• Quote from Lotto NZ, attributable to Sarah McCormack, Corporate Communications Manager:

“We want our winners to experience the thrill of checking their ticket and finding out they are winners themselves – but we also want to make sure they claim their prize!

“So once two months had gone by without our winner claiming, we thought it was time to get in contact – and what better time to find out you’re a millionaire than with Christmas just around the corner.”

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