Lotto winner kept $8 million ticket under her pillow

Tuesday, 25 July 2017

The Auckland woman knows exactly what she's going to do with the money.

Powerball's latest millionaire spent a restless night waiting to claim her $8 million prize — with the winning ticket stashed under her pillow for safe-keeping.

The woman from Auckland's Botany bought a ticket for Saturday night's draw as a gift for a friend, then at the last minute decided to grab one for herself as well.

That split-second decision proved to be worth $8 million.

The winner, who wanted to remain anonymous, said she was having a quiet Saturday night at home when she discovered the life-changing news.

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'There was nothing on TV, so I decided to go to bed early,' she said.

'I saw my Lotto ticket lying on my bedside table and decided to check it on the Lotto NZ App. I scanned the ticket and it came up 'major winner' and I started getting quite excited.

'So I checked the winning numbers, and every single number just lined up on the very first row of my ticket – it was unbelievable.

'Then I went online to read the news and saw a ticket bought at Botany New World had won $8 million. That's when I started to think, 'Oh my God, it's real.''

The winner immediately phoned her sons, who came over with a bottle of champagne, and they stayed up till the early hours of the morning celebrating, crying, and talking about what to do next.

Then she faced a sleepless night while she waited to claim her prize the next day.

'I didn't want to let the ticket go. First I put it in a little plastic bag so it wouldn't get damaged.

'Then I put it inside a Monty Python's DVD case – winning Lotto feels so surreal, I figured that was the best place for it. Then I slept with the DVD case under my pillow – I wasn't letting that ticket out my grasp.'

She headed into Botany New World as early as possible on Sunday morning to cash in the ticket.

With the winnings now safely in her bank account, she knows exactly what she wants to do first.

'I always used to tell my Dad that when I win Lotto, I'm going to take him out for a nice glass of wine – in France.

'After I cashed in my ticket, the first person I phoned was my Dad to tell him the news – that I'd won Lotto and that we're going to France.'

She's the third Powerball winner in the last two months, following a $27 million win by a Thames couple in June and a $10 million win by Tauranga man Lou Te Keeti earlier this month.