Punter gets out of $20K mistake
A LUCKY punter who left his winning ticket at a Port Douglas pub is $20,000 richer after bar staff tracked him down.
Melbourne man Tim Collis, a 53-year-old powerline worker, had no idea his quadrella bet was a winner when his Far Northern mate, Glen “Popeye” Dwyer, called him to say Courthouse Hotel bar staff were looking for him.
“Popeye thought I must have got in a bit of strife,” Mr Collis said. “He thought ‘what has Tim done, I am not giving his name’. Then the publican told him the chain of events.”
After placing the bet on Saturday afternoon, the pair wandered back to the Central Hotel on Macrossan St.
It was there he left his ticket on a table after thinking he lost the second leg of the quaddie.
A quaddie is a bet where the punter must pick the winners of four nominated races.
Mr Collis, who was on a three-day holiday with his partner when he went on his gambling escapade, said he put $100 down on a series of Vic- torian horse races.
“I still actually don’t believe it. I am still trying to come to grips with it,” he said.
“I thought I will have a few beers at the Central and put a couple of bets on.
“I watched the first leg and a roughie got up, then in the second another roughie got up ... All night I was thinking that was pretty close, but I thought I didn’t win.”
After the Courthouse was alerted by the TAB that the pub had served a $20,000 winner, bar staff from both watering-holes identified the pair on CCTV cameras and contacted Popeye, a regular patron at the pub.