The win was the last of three $5.08 million prizes. Photo / File
The win was the last of three $5.08 million prizes. Photo / File
A West Coast man joked he had won the region’s unclaimed $5.08 million Powerball prize – days before discovering he actually had.
The win was the last of three $5.08m Powerball prizes that were won in Saturday, February 14’s live Lotto draw.
The couple, whowish to remain anonymous, had no idea they were sitting on the final unclaimed share from the draw until the man’s sister mentioned it in passing.
“We’d gone over to her house to visit, and my sister was talking about this big prize that hadn’t been claimed yet and how she needed to check whether her husband had bought a ticket,” he said.
“I joked, ‘Nah, no need – it was us, we won it,’ and that was before we even knew!”
The comment was quickly forgotten until a few days later, when the man was out running errands and decided to pop into New World Greymouth and check his ticket.
“The look on the operator’s face will stay with me forever,” he said.
“She calmly closed the Lotto counter and took me to the office, where she said, ‘You’ve just won Lotto,’ and showed me the receipt with the amount on it.
“I started shaking, trying to make sense of it – I just couldn’t comprehend the numbers.”
The couple say their wish-list isn't too extensive.
After completing the paperwork, the man left the store and tried to call his partner, who was busy in the garden and didn’t hear her phone.
“When I came back inside, I saw all the missed calls. I phoned him straight back and he was crying and could barely talk. I thought something must be seriously wrong,” she said.
Through tears, he finally managed to get the words out: “I’ve just won five million dollars.”
His partner said: “I didn’t believe him, but then he sent me a photo of the paperwork and called again, saying, ‘Whatever you do, don’t tell anyone,’ so that’s when I thought … maybe he’s actually telling the truth.”
The man drove home carefully and on high alert.
“Suddenly, I was hyper-aware of everything. The only other time I’ve driven like that was when we brought our newborn baby home from the hospital.”
Celebrations will come later, but that night, the couple marked the moment with a couple of chocolate biscuits in lieu of champagne.
The couple are still processing the news and have been busy thinking about their future and all of the opportunities ahead.
“We’re so overwhelmed and emotional. We just keep saying to each other, ‘Can you believe it?’”
