Forgotten Lotto ticket in glovebox surprises Northland man with $200k win

What started as a routine car tidy-up for a Northland man ended with him holding a $200,000 surprise.

The man had bought the Strike bonus ticket from Pak’nSave Kaitāia for the Wednesday draw on November 13 last year.

The man, who wanted to remain anonymous, recalled hearing the supermarket had sold a winning $200,000 ticket last year – but he never thought he’d have it.

“I forgot I’d put some tickets in the glovebox,” he said.

“I was cleaning it out last week when I saw the tickets and thought ‘hmm, I don’t think I’ve checked these’.”

The man writes the winning numbers down each week.

“... So I went inside to grab my book and looked back for the winning numbers from November.

“The first four matched my ticket and my first thought was ‘holy cow!’ – I was very shocked,” he said.

The man said he couldn’t stop smiling after the win.

“ ... It’s come in very handy for us – it’s changed our life in a great way.”

Unbeknown to him, Lotto NZ had been set to ramp up efforts to track him down when he claimed his prize.

Lotto NZ’s head of corporate communications, Will Hine, said it had been perfect timing when the man claimed his prize.

“We were days away from reaching out to the winner’s bank, like we did recently with an unclaimed $500,000 prize in Auckland.

“We much prefer our winners find out they’ve won themselves – it’s all part of the winning experience, so this is the best outcome for everyone,” Hine said.

A separate Northlander won $350,000 in this week’s Strike Four draw.

The Northland winner played on the MyLotto app.

Lotto NZ has urged players to check their tickets and the app to see if they have winnings to claim.