Winning Lotto ticket nearly up in flames

A Cambridge dairy farmer is counting her lucky stars after learning the Lotto ticket she had put in the bin to be burnt had won an Audi A1 with Lotto’s Mother’s Day promotion.

The woman, who wishes to remain anonymous, went online on Sunday to check if she had won anything on her regular tickets.

“I checked my Lotto tickets first and saw I had won a couple of Bonus Tickets which I was happy with,” said the winner.

"Then I had a quick glance at the Mother’s Day promo results, but didn’t think I’d won anything, so tossed my ticket in a pile of paper to be burnt and thought nothing more of it.”

It wasn’t until the next day that the winner realised she may have been too hasty throwing away her ticket.

“I was waiting in line to claim the Bonus Tickets I had won, when I saw a poster at the counter saying that the store had sold an Audi A1.

“I told the Lotto lady that I didn’t think they’d sold a big winner, so I’d chucked my ticket in the bin! She told me to that I better go home and get it out of the bin, just in case,” said the winner.

When she returned home later that evening the winner retrieved the crumpled ticket from the bin and sat down at the computer to re-check the results.

“One look at the screen and there was my voucher number, as clear as day. I was in total disbelief! I called my husband to check I wasn’t seeing things,” said the winner.

After checking her ticket over and over again, it dawned on the winner how close she had been to watching her prize go up in smoke.

“We normally burn our rubbish on Sundays but hadn’t this week because of the weather. So it was actually really lucky we still had the ticket – we could have been rummaging through the ashes otherwise!” said the winner.

The winner and her husband then went back in store the next day to claim their prize.

“I think the Lotto lady was surprised to see me. She was so happy for us and we gave her a bunch of flowers to say thank you for reuniting us with our prize,” said the winner.

“I guess the moral of the story is to double check your tickets before throwing them away or take them in store — you just never know,” laughed the winner

The winner was one of five players who won an Audi A1 with Lotto’s Mother’s Day promotion on Saturday 13 May. The other Audi A1s were sold in Tauranga, Napier, Upper Hutt and Ashburton

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