Lotto ticket buyer oblivious for days to $6.9m windfall

Saturday night's $6.9 million Lotto Powerball was claimed yesterday by a man from the Nelson region whose winning ticket sat in his car for several days before he checked to see whether it was the winner.

NZ Lotteries chief executive Todd McLeay said the man watched the draw live on Saturday night, but didn't think he had any winning numbers so didn't bother getting it out of the car.

The man told officials: "It was only on Monday night, when I finally took my ticket inside and checked it against the Lotto results online, that I realised I had won."