Couple collect €500,000 after euromillions ticket left in bag for weeks

A County Wicklow couple are half a million euro richer, after their winning EuroMillions Plus ticket spent a month in a handbag.

The couple bought their ticket in Kilmacanogue Esso Service Station on Tuesday, September 20, and they won the €500,000 top prize in the EuroMillions Plus draw.

As they collected their prize at National Lottery offices in Dublin last week, the ecstatic wife said: ‘Himself had given me a collection of tickets to check in the shop. I had them in my handbag for a few weeks. To think, I’d a ticket worth half a million euro in my handbag!

‘I didn’t get around to checking them until yesterday and got a message on the scanner to contact the National Lottery,’ she said.

‘When she told me we’d won something on that ticket, I knew when I saw the numbers it was the EuroMillions Plus,’ the husband said. ‘I was very calm when I phoned the National Lottery to confirm. I read out the number on the ticket and was told we’d won half a million. Well, then I lost my calm. I’ve been shaking ever since.’

When presented with their half a million euro cheque at Lotto HQ the wife exclaimed, ‘God almighty – that is an amazing!’

A total of 21 players have won the €500,000 EuroMillions Plus top prize this year to date. EuroMillions Plus is an exclusive game to EuroMillions players in Ireland. For just an extra €1 per panel, EuroMillions players have the opportunity to enter their five main EuroMillions game numbers into the Plus draw for the chance to win up to €500,000.