$28m Lotto win to fulfil dream
An Auckland grandmother says she will fulfil her dream of buying a house after scooping a $28 million Lotto jackpot.
The woman, who wants to remain anonymous, won $28.16m on the Powerball ticket she bought at convenience store Megstar in Henderson.
The woman hasn’t made any huge decisions about what she is going to do with her winnings, but she is definitely going to buy a house, something that has ‘‘always been a dream of hers’’.
The Aucklander said she bought Lotto tickets ‘‘from time to time’’, but didn’t think anything of the Triple Dip she picked up earlier in the week until she saw the owners of the shop she bought her ticket from on Sunday night’s news.
‘‘I thought ‘huh, that’s where I bought my ticket’ – I was really happy for the owners, they seemed thrilled,’’ the woman said. ‘‘I imagined a little about what I would do if I was the lucky winner – but that was it, I didn’t seriously think it was me!’’
She was still completely unaware she had a goldmine at the bottom of her handbag when she was out shopping on Monday, and decided to check her ticket.
‘‘I had a couple of tickets I needed to check, and I put them through the self-checker. One of them won me a bonus ticket, which I thought was pretty good
– then when I scanned the next one I saw ‘First Division’ appear on the screen,’’ said the woman.
‘‘I took the ticket to the counter and asked the lady to check it again for me. That’s when she called the store owner over, and they pointed at the sign saying ‘big winner sold here’ and whispered to me ‘that’s you!’’’
The grandmother, who was ‘‘shaking and crying’’ was taken out the back of the store by the owner, to tell her privately exactly how much she had won.
The ‘‘overwhelmed’’ woman called her daughter on her way home, and told her to come over straight away. The daughter raced over, thinking ‘‘it was a family emergency’’.
‘‘When I got to Mum’s place, she pulled me aside and said, it’s me – I’ve won the $28 million,’’ the daughter recalled. ‘‘I just stared at her for a moment, then burst into tears – and Mum started crying too. We just stood there in a quiet corner of the house crying, then laughing, then crying again for a long time.’’
The grandmother is now thinking carefully about what she is going to do next.
‘‘This win means so much to us and will make such a difference to our family – I feel so incredibly lucky,’’ she said. ‘‘I’d love to have a swimming pool for my kids and grandchildren to enjoy.’’
The $28.16 million prize is the sixth largest Powerball prize ever won in New Zealand.