Otago’s Newest Lotto Millionaires Convinced They Had Won $1,000

An Otago couple’s lives changed in an instant after realising their winning Lotto ticket had not won them $1,000 as they first thought - but had instead made them overnight millionaires!

The couple, who wish to remain anonymous, purchased their ticket on MyLotto a few days before the draw.

“We usually grab our tickets from our local Lotto shop, but over the last few months I’ve been buying them online – it’s so quick and easy,” said the woman.

“I checked our ticket on Friday night and saw pretty quickly that we had won a prize. We had family over at the time so I must have been distracted when I read the prize amount because I shouted out to everyone, ‘We’ve just won $1,000 with Lotto!’ – everyone was thrilled, and we promptly celebrated with a bottle of wine,” laughed the woman.

With the prize claimed and certain they had won $1,000, the woman was surprised to receive a call from Lotto NZ’s Winner’s team the following week, congratulating her on her win.

“When I was chatting to the woman from Lotto NZ on the phone, I jumped back into my MyLotto account to double check my ticket – and there were definitely a few more zeros looking back at me. I read and re-read the amount, and sure enough, it was $1 million! I was so overcome with emotion in that moment, I burst into tears,” said the woman.

After the call, the woman waited nervously for her husband to come home so she could share the exciting news.

“I’d barely got a foot in the door, when my wife said, ‘I’ve made big mistake,’ beckoning me over to our computer,” said the man.

“She had our winning MyLotto ticket up on the screen and asked me to take a look – and it very clearly said we’d won $1 million. After reading the number several times, I just looked at her in utter shock and disbelief,” said the man.

“It’s a bit of a joke between us now – neither of us can believe she missed the commas and completely misread where the decimal place was,” joked the man. “We spent the whole weekend stoked we had won $1,000, so to discover it’s actually $1 million… well, it feels like the best bonus ever.”

With the winnings now safely in their bank account, the couple are looking forward to their future, and plan to set themselves up for retirement.

“We’ve worked hard all our lives, so it didn’t come as a surprise when my husband said the first thing he wanted to buy was a new pair of work boots,” laughed the woman.

“And I know those boots will be covered in mud soon – I have plenty of work still to do!” laughed the man.

“But all joking aside, we still can’t believe this has happened to us – the whole experience has been an absolute dream – we feel incredibly lucky,” he said.

The winning Lotto First Division ticket was sold on MyLotto for the draw on Wednesday 9 March.

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