Sydney man finds old $1m Lotto ticket in his pocket: 'Had no idea'
A western Sydney man got the surprise of his life after discovering he won Lotto almost two months ago.
He had been unknowingly carrying the Saturday Lotto million-dollar winning ticket around in his wallet since he bought it in early October from the Wetherill Park Newsagency.
He finally stumbled across the life-changing windfall when he returned to the shop to check some other tickets he purchased weeks earlier.
“I had no idea I was a millionaire this whole time! It’s crazy,” he laughed.
“When the staff member scanned the ticket and told me they thought I’d won division one, I kept saying, ‘What? Why are you saying this to me? Are you sure?’.
“I went very quiet after that. I couldn’t believe it! I was very shocked.”
He said his wife “cried a lot” when he broke the news.
“We’re still trying to wrap our heads around the news.
“I can’t believe we’re millionaires! We’ve been dreaming of this moment.
“It feels like we’re floating on cloud nine.”
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The Wetherill Park residents already know how they will spend the prize.
“I think we will use it to buy ourselves a small house.
“We’ll definitely plan an overseas holiday next year too, and the rest we will save for the future.”
The Sydney player held one of the five division one winning entries across Australia in Saturday Lotto draw 4197, drawn on Saturday October 9, 2021. Each division one winning entry scored $1,234,399.86.
His entry was unregistered, which means officials from The Lott had no way of contacting the winner and were forced to wait until the ticket holder came forward.
Wetherill Park Newsagency owner Ly Vo said she was glad their winner had finally claimed his big win.
“It’s very exciting! We’ve sold a division one winning share in a syndicate before, but this was our first Saturday Lotto division one win,” he said.
“We’re over the moon and would love to send them our congratulations.”
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