How man's broken hip led to him winning major lotto prize
An elderly man’s broken hip turned out to be his lucky break after he ended up winning the lottery.
New Jersey man Earl Livingston, 87, was walking to buy a ticket for this week’s Mega Millions jackpot when he fell and broke his hip, WCAU-TV reports.
Mr Livingston had to be hospitalised at Jefferson Stafford Hospital and missed out on buying an entry.
However, the elderly man’s niece, Bobbie Mickle, told hospital staff about him wanting to enter so they invited him to join their pool with 141 other entrants.
The pool won US$1 million (AUD$1.4m).
Ms Mickle told NBC 10 she didn’t believe her uncle when he told her he’d won from his hospital bed.
“I thought he was confused, maybe from pain meds,” she said.
“And then the staff came into the room and they were saying congratulations and I was like, ‘Wow, he really did win’.”
Mr Livingston will have to wait before he can celebrate his win though.
Unfortunately, the break means he’ll need a hip replacement.
Last month, a drought-stricken farmer in NSW was given some relief after he won $200,000 in the Lucky Lotteries Mega Jackpot draw.
“We’ve been going through the drought and things are a bit tough at the moment … we’ve been hanging in there,” he said.
A single mum from country NSW also revealed how constant nagging from her family led her to realising she had won more than $400,000.
The parent turned out to be one of 10 division one winning entries across Australia in a Lotto draw, taking home a cool $408,233.51.
But if it wasn’t for the persistence of a relative, she may have remained oblivious about her winnings.
“One of my family members wouldn’t leave me alone until I checked my ticket,” the mother said.
“They’d been telling me all week to check it.
“I didn’t quite believe it, so we checked the ticket against the numbers in the local paper, and sure enough, they were all there!”
