$200,000 Lotto prize still unclaimed after full month
THE owner of the Caversham Four Square store is pleading with customers to check their Lotto tickets as a $200,000 prize remains unclaimed a month after the numbers were drawn.
Store owner Sandra Shum said she called Lotto yesterday and was told the prize was the only one of five first division wins in the October 14, No 1690, draw still to be collected.
‘‘We hope we find them, because they’ve only got a year to claim it.’’
In past weeks staff had been asking customers to check their tickets and the shop owners put a sign on the counter to alert customers to the unclaimed win, she said.
‘‘People put their tickets under their bed perhaps, put it in their wallet, then they forget about it.’’
The shop had sold tickets since Lotto’ began in 1986 and had ‘‘heaps’’ of winners in that time, Mrs Shum said.
The largest prize staff could remember was $800,000.
Many prizes went unclaimed over the years, including entire houses, she said.
Winners often promised Mrs Shum cruises and dinners, but did not deliver, she said, although, ‘‘I did once get shouted some cream cakes’’.
If Mrs Shum won $200,000 the first thing she would do was take her family out to dinner.
‘‘I’d also pay the mortgage off. Maybe have a holiday. I deserve one.’’