Lotto won twice in one year for lucky shopper
An Auckland woman has collected an $11 million Powerball prize – her second Lotto win this year.
The winner came forward to claim the Powerball prize yesterday, months after winning $333,333 with Lotto first division.
The odds of a single player winning Lotto first division and Powerball first division in two separate draws is 1 in 147,000,000,000,000.
The woman, who is a regular Lotto player, bought the lucky ticket while doing some late night shopping at her local mall.
‘‘I needed to get some new clothes, so decided to duck into New World Albany to grab my weekly Lotto ticket before I hit the shops,’’ she said. She slipped the ticket into her handbag and carried on with her shopping.
Then, on Saturday night, while watching the live Lotto draw, she realised how lucky she had become.
‘‘My husband was dozing next to me, so I just quietly checked the ticket so as not to wake him.
‘‘It wasn’t until I got to line ‘R’ on my ticket that I noticed that I had all the numbers in a row.
‘‘As soon as I saw that, my heart started racing very, very fast — I even checked my pulse to make sure I wasn’t dreaming,’’ she laughed.
Wide-eyed and frantic, the woman grabbed her husband’s shoulders and shook him awake.
‘‘As soon as he opened his eyes
‘‘My heart started racing very, very fast – I even checked my pulse to make sure I wasn’t dreaming.’’ Double Lotto winner
I blurted out: We’ve won – again!’’
Her husband said she was so excited she was practically yelling. ‘‘It wouldn’t have been long before the whole neighbourhood knew. I calmed her down and tried to make sense of what she was telling me, it was barely believable.’’
Unable to sleep, the couple stayed awake all night discussing what they might do with the winnings. ‘‘We’ve been renting all our lives, so after we won Lotto first division back in May we tucked the prize away and started house hunting,’’ said the winner.
‘‘But the house hunt is going to step up a notch now – maybe a bit more land and a swimming pool.
‘‘In fact, we spent all day on Sunday looking at houses,’’ said the couple.
The husband credits his wife for their incredible luck.
‘‘There’s no denying that my wife has a bit of a lucky touch – after all, it’s not every day you win first division, let alone two big prizes in just a couple of months.
‘‘There’s only one word to describe this year – unforgettable.
‘‘It’s going to be one to beat!’’