Woman drives around with $1m Lotto ticket in glove box for 8 months

The woman was calm but in shock when she was told she'd won $1 million. Photo / NZME

By RNZ

An Auckland woman who bought a Lotto ticket on a whim has claimed a $1 million prize after finding the ticket in her glovebox eight months later.

The woman, who wished to remain anonymous, told Lotto she thought nothing of it when she heard that a winning ticket had been bought in her suburb.

It turned out she had bought that ticket while out with her son in August.

"I was waiting for our sushi and thought I'd grab a Lotto ticket from the dairy while I was there," she said.

"I popped the ticket in the glove box when I got back in the car - and then forgot all about it."

The woman was waiting for her sushi at that same shop when she decided to clean out her glovebox and came across the ticket.

"You never think it will be you, do you? To be honest, I had totally forgotten that I'd bought a ticket anyway," she laughed.

She was calm but in shock when she was told she'd won $1 million.

Deciding to surprise her husband, she went home and waited for him, handing him the receipt which read $1,000,000 when he walked through the door.

"He kept looking at me, then at the receipt, and back at me again. Eventually he said, 'is this for real?'

"It was so amazing to be able to say, 'yes darling, it's real.'

"He couldn't believe we had been driving around for eight months with, essentially, $1 million in our car.

"But we're big believers that everything happens for a reason, so we do trust that this was the time we were supposed to find the ticket and claim our prize."

The woman says she and her family celebrated that night and plan to buy a house and a new car with their winnings.

"It brings us so much comfort knowing we have a buffer there too."