Gisborne couple claim $6.5 million Powerball prize

Media Release 24 March 2017

Gisborne couple claim $6.5 million Powerball prize

A Gisborne couple have come forward and claimed the $6.5 million Powerball prize that has had the city abuzz for almost two weeks.

Remarkably, the couple, who wish to remain anonymous, have known that they had the golden ticket the whole time – but chose to tuck it away while they worked out what they wanted to do next.

When the winner heard the day after the draw that Grant Bros. had sold a winning Powerball ticket, he immediately had a good feeling about the ticket he had in the glove box of his car.

“I just had a lucky feeling about it, so I had a quick look over the winning numbers so I knew what to look for on my ticket – I figured that if I had that Powerball number, I’d give it a proper check,” said the winner.

But when he looked at the results online, a few of the winning numbers stood out to him.

“Lots of the numbers were actually ones that are special to my family, so they stood out right away. The trick was, of course, whether I had them on my ticket.”

So the winner headed out to the car to find his ticket – and quickly realised he had something special in his hands.

“I saw the winning line straight away, so I called my wife outside to tell her the good news.”

“When I got outside he was standing by the car casually as anything, but with a really worried look on his face,” said the winner’s wife.

“Then he told me we’d won Powerball – I didn’t know what to think.”

“I’ll never forget the look on her face,” said the winner. “She had this look of utter disbelief – and then you could see it slowly dawn on her what this would mean for our family. It was magic.”

The winners then stood by the car and checked the ticket several times to make sure they weren’t dreaming.

“When I realised it wasn’t a joke, I cried. Then I laughed. Then I cried again! It was a real rollercoaster,” laughed the winner’s wife.

Rather than racing to their nearest Lotto store to claim their prize, the winners decided to put the winning ticket away while they cleared their heads.

“At first I thought I’d put it back in the glove box, but then thought what a bugger it would be if the car got stolen,” said the winner.

“So I ended up putting it in a folder where we keep all our bills – we figured that even if the house got robbed, no one is ever going to want to steal that!”

Almost two weeks after their big win, the winners headed to Auckland to hand over the winning ticket and finally claim their prize.

They now have the enviable task of working out what to do with their winnings – and they already have a few ideas.

“We want to help family, that’s a big one for us,” said the winner.

“And we know that there are a lot of people out there in our community that could really do with help and that’s where our reward is going to be – helping people out.”

The winning ticket was sold at Grant Bros. in Gisborne for the draw on Saturday 11 March.

This is the largest prize ever won in Gisborne and the fourth time Powerball First Division has been won so far this year.

ENDS

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