Whangārei man kept winning Lotto First Division ticket on car seat for four days

A Whangārei man kept this Lotto ticket on the front seat of his car for four days, unaware that it had won him $200,000. Photo / Supplied

A decision to get a Lotto Lucky Dip instead of his normal numbers has come up trumps for a Whangārei man, who won $200,000 with the ticket.

While most Lotto players keep their tickets tucked away somewhere safe like their wallet or on their fridge, the Whangārei man left his Lotto ticket on the front seat of his car for four days – completely unaware that the lucky yellow piece of paper was worth $200,000.

The man, who wishes to remain anonymous, bought his winning ticket the day before the draw.

"I usually play my favourite numbers," said the man, "but I'd left them in my wife's car that day, so decided to just try my luck with a Dip instead".

Despite knowing that his local Lotto store had sold a First Division winning ticket, the man left his lucky yellow ticket sitting on the front seat of his car for four days before he decided to check it.

"When I saw that the prize still hadn't been claimed by Friday, I started to think I might be in with a bit of a chance," the man said.

"But it wasn't until the weekend that I finally got around to checking my ticket. When the woman at the Lotto counter put it through the machine I saw her eyes open really wide – that's when I knew that I'd won something big."

Upon arriving home, the man handed a slip of paper with the $200,000 prize written on it to his my wife and said, "We've won Lotto!"

"She wasn't wearing her glasses, so she thought we'd won $2 at first," laughed the winner.

"She took another look and said, 'wow - $20,000' and started jumping up and down – I had to stop her and explain that it was even better than that."

With the winnings now safely in the winner's bank account, the man has a few ideas as to how he might spend his winnings.

"The house needs a bit of a tidy-up, so we'll probably use some of the prize to do that. It would be nice to get a few boys' toys as well, but who knows."

The winning ticket was sold at Sunnyside Foodmart in Whangārei for the Lotto draw on Wednesday, March 27.

Earlier that week, Sunnyside Foodmart also sold a $10 Winter Wonderland Instant Kiwi ticket that also won $200,000.