$8million birthday present

Media Release 16 September 2015

$8million birthday present

A Hastings man has just celebrated a particularly memorable birthday – it’s the day he won $8.1 million with Powerball.

The winner, who wishes to remain anonymous, received his winning Lotto ticket as a birthday present from a family member at the weekend and checked it along with his other tickets on Sundayafternoon.

“I always check my tickets on a Sunday to see whether or not I’ll have to go back to work on Monday,” joked the winner.

Not realising that work could indeed be a thing of the past, the winner checked his tickets against the winning numbers on MyLotto.

“I thought I was seeing things when I saw I had all six numbers, so I called to my partner to double-check. That’s when she quietly pointed out we also had the Powerball number – it was an unreal feeling,” the winner said.

As soon as they realised they had a winner on their hands, the couple headed straight to a local dairy to check they really were winners – and get the little yellow ticket out of their house.

“All I could think about was getting the ticket to Lotto as soon as possible in case I lost it or the house burnt down,” the winner laughed.

With their win confirmed and the ticket safely out of their hands, the winners headed straight out to pick up a little something special to celebrate their good fortune – but it wasn’t for them.

“We whipped around the corner to another shop and found a nice bottle of champagne to drop back to the store to say thanks – it was the least we could do,” the winner said.

So how does a newly minted millionaire celebrate their birthday? Apparently a quiet night with the family will do just fine.

“Everything I thought I would do if I won Lotto has flown out of my head – my mind just doesn’t have room for all the zeros in my bank account, let alone my birthday,” the winner laughed.

“While I thought giving up work would be the first thing I’d do, I don’t have any plans to quit just yet – it’s the one thing that keeps me feeling normal at the moment.

But there is one thing the winner can’t wait to do following his big win – share the good news.

“I’m really looking forward to telling the person who bought me the ticket – it’ll knock their socks off! I’m trying to think of a nice way to surprise them with the news – after all, they helped change my life,” the winner said.

The winning ticket was sold at Unichem Stortford Lodge Pharmacy in Hastings. Unichem Stortford Lodge Pharmacy is considered the ‘luckiest’ Lotto store in New Zealand as they have sold more First Division winning tickets than any other store.

In their 28 years of selling Lotto tickets, they’ve sold 39 First Division winning tickets, including two Powerball tickets, 35 Lotto tickets and two Strike tickets.

Next month will see Lotto, Powerball and Strike coming to Wednesday as well as Saturday to make even more winners and more millionaires than ever before.

The first Lotto draw on Wednesday will be held on 7 October, which is only three weeks’ away.

ENDS

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