Man wins $100,000 after finding two-year-old scratchie in Christmas gift bag
A Nelson Bay man will be having a very merry Christmas after discovering an Instant Scratch-Its ticket worth $100,00 in a gift bag he was given two years ago.
The NSW man told lottery officials he found the winning $5 Warm Wishes Instant Scratch-Its ticket floating in the bottom of an old gift bag in the cupboard.
The lucky winner said he’d been wrapping presents when he suddenly ran out of good wrapping paper, so his wife went into the cupboard to dig out some old gift bags.
“This ticket was face down in the bottom of this one gift bag, so we had no idea we even had it until then,” the winner laughed.
'We can't believe it’s been sitting in our linen closet for two years!'
It wasn’t until the next morning, while enjoying breakfast, that the man’s wife decided to scratch the two-year-old ticket.
“She screamed: ‘Oh my god, no way! We’ve won $100,000!’. I instantly looked at her and said: ‘No, get off it. That can’t be right!’.
But sure enough, she was right.
“We can’t believe it’s been sitting in our linen closet for two years! We’ve walked past that closet so many times, and we’ve cleaned it and had no idea there was $100,000 in it this whole time,” said the winning man.
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'We have no idea who gifted it to us'
The man called around to family members to find out who gifted them the winning ticket, but it will remain a mystery.
“We have no idea who gifted it to us, so we can’t thank them, sadly,” he lamented.
“But we’ve decided we’re going to buy a bunch of Instant Scratch-Its tickets and pop them into Christmas cards and give them to everyone. Hopefully, they have a big win, too."
The jolly winner shared that his family planned to spend their windfall on an air conditioner for the house, a new car, and a well-deserved holiday.
The winning ticket was originally purchased at Nelson Bay Newsagency, Nelson Bay.
If gambling is a problem for you go to Gambling Help Online or call 1800 858 858.
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