$12.75m Lotto win: Mum sends jazz hands emoji to children before sharing news

An Auckland mum sent a jazz hands emoji to her children after winning $12.75 million in Saturday’s Lotto Powerball draw.

The $25m jackpot was shared by two tickets, with one taking $12.5m and the other $12.75m.

One of the tickets was bought for $12 on Saturday via MyLotto by an Auckland man who said he sometimes tweaks the Powerball number on his ticket to one of his preferred numbers.

“Powerball number 3 cropped up twice, so I didn’t change it the second time – and that’s the line we won on,” he said.

He logged on to his app and saw the virtual draw play out, surprising his partner just before she went to sleep.

“I was in the bathroom getting ready for bed when I suddenly heard him shouting my name,” she said.

An Auckland couple won $12.75 million with Powerball. Photo / Supplied

“Then he appeared in the doorway as calm as anything, saying ‘I think we’ve won Powerball.’”

She wasn’t sure it was real and wanted to call Lotto to check the result, but her partner believed it was true.

“I’ve been buying tickets for a long time, so I knew what I was looking at and I knew it had to be real,” he said.

The couple kept news of their win quiet for a few days before they asked their children to meet them.

“I’d seen them since they found out and they didn’t say a word – they had great poker faces!” one of their children said.

“So when Mum got in touch to say they were coming over to talk to us, I thought something was wrong.

“But then she followed it up with a message saying ‘and then we’ll all go out for dinner’ with a jazz hands emoji, so that calmed me down a bit.”

One of their other children started to suspect something was up when they received the invite for a chat.

“It didn’t sound like bad news when Mum was telling me to come over, and coincidentally I’d just checked my own ticket and hadn’t won, so it made me think that perhaps they were wanting to tell us they were the winners,” he said.

The couple managed to sneak in a bottle of champagne to their chat, so they could toast the win together, something they said they’ll remember forever.

The couple said they hope to help their grandchildren and plan a few holidays with their cash prize.