‘€500k ticket was in my car all this time’

A EUROMILLIONS winner who scooped €500,000 said he completely forgot about his ticket until a friend told him it had been sold locally.

The young Offaly man said yesterday he ‘folded it up into the sun visor’ of his car ‘and there it stayed’ – until the friend gave him the exciting news. And he was €500,000 richer yesterday after he collected a cheque from National Lottery headquarters in Dublin, for the EuroMillions Plus top prize from Friday, July 20.

The man became the 17th EuroMillions Plus top prize winner in Ireland this year. The winning Quick Pick ticket was purchased at Mangan’s Filling Station in Edenderry, Co. Offaly – and despite news of the win gripping the town for the past two weeks, the winner was oblivious to the fact that he had the golden ticket.

‘I hadn’t a clue that I had the winning ticket until Thursday when somebody mentioned to me that the prize was sold locally,’ the man said. ‘I don’t think it’ll properly sink in until the cheque has cleared in my bank account.’

The anonymous winner said he’d treat himself to a new car before making longterm plans. ‘I’ve only had a day to take all of this in so to make this win real to me I’m going to splash out on a new car in the next few days. €500,000 is a massive amount of money so I need to get some financial plans in place so it will have a long-lasting benefit for me.’

Meanwhile, a mother and daughter team were also enjoying a big win yesterday. The pair scooped €30,000 from a National Lottery scratch card they had bought en route to Dublin Airport to catch a holiday flight to Malaga.

Teresa Kiely and her daughter Dee called into Lotto HQ yesterday after flying back to Dublin from their five-day break.

They bought the €3 All Cash Tripler scratch card last week at the Spar store in Collins Avenue, Dublin 9. ‘We couldn’t believe it at first but when we got to Spain, we called the National Lottery and they confirmed the win,’ said Teresa.