A Northern Territory man discovered he had won a A$2 million lottery prize more than a month after the draw.
The division one prize-winner from the TattsLotto draw on May 5 landed a tidy A$2,013,144.80 (US$1.52 million). But TattsLotto said they could not find the lucky ticket-holder because their entry was not registered to a Tatts Card.
All that officials knew was the winner bought their ticket from Exposure Photographics located in the town of Katherine. They urged Katherine residents who entered the draw to check their tickets.
Yesterday, a Katherine man finally stepped forward to claim the prize. It turned out he had his ticket stuck on the fridge for the last five weeks, and the man only got around to checking the 50-game QuickPick entry more than a month later.
The man, who wishes to remain anonymous, told a Tatts official, “I downloaded the results online and I started going through the ticket and then I saw I had all six numbers in a row.”
“I only realised how much the prize was today–I wasn’t sure if that prize was shared or whether I got that full amount.”
“It’s just fantastic. It would take you all your life to earn that amount.”
But the now-millionaire says he doesn’t expect his life to change too much after this windfall.
“Some of it will get used on things we need, but the rest will make a nice little nest egg for our future,” he said.
The owner of Katherine Exposure Photographics, Kathy Smale, said she was delighted that someone had finally claimed the prize.
“We’ve had people coming in every day for the past few weeks asking if the winner had been found, so it will be great to finally say–‘yes they have,’” she said.
This is the second time in less than 12 months that the division one winning entry had been purchased from the store. Last June, a Katherine local won $1.4 million from a ticket bought at Smale’s outlet.
“It’s just fantastic news. This was our second division one in 12 months but hey wouldn’t it be awesome to sell another one in the next TattsLotto Superdraw?!” said Smale.