Christchurch woman unknowingly carried $1m Lotto ticket for a week
A Christchurch woman unknowingly spent a week as a millionaire when she discovered she’d been carrying around a winning Lotto ticket for a week.
The woman, who wishes to remain anonymous, is a regular player and had purchased the ticket at New World Ilam.
She had been going about her usual routine when she stopped to check her ticket at a local store.
“I hadn’t heard that anyone had won in Christchurch, so it came as a bit of a shock,” she said.
Upon scanning the ticket, the terminal displayed a message saying she’d won “a major prize”.
“I asked the staff member how much it was, and she slid the receipt across to show me that it was $1 million,” she said.
“There was no doubting there was six zeroes there, but it took a while to compute.”
Upon scanning the ticket, the terminal displayed a message saying the woman had won a major prize.
She then called her husband who was at work.
“I told him I needed to see him straight away, but not to worry, and that everything was okay,” she said.
The pair hurried to catch up, with the woman still feeling overwhelmed by the news.
“I told him I was light-headed and in a bit of shock,” she laughed.
“His face went completely white.”
Instead of explaining, she showed him the prize receipt.
“I didn’t really process what I was looking at,” he said.
“When I saw it was a prize, I actually thought it said $1,000.”
His wife told him to have a closer look.
“That’s when it clicked,” he laughed.
“It wasn’t a thousand dollars, it was a million. All I could say was, ‘Oh my goodness.’
“Then I had to go back to work and act like everything was completely normal – that was hard!“
The pair spent that evening talking about their win and what the future might hold.
“It still feels unreal,” said the woman.
“I think it’s going to take some time before it fully sinks in.
“We’re going to take some time to think about what to do with it.”
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