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As a $ 5.5 million lottery ticket went unnoticed in the glove compartment of his car, its unwitting owner was stopped on a Morrinsville street by two strangers.
It was the end of a month-long hunt for Lotto’s ‘spies’.
They had a very particular skill set.
Skills that make them a dream come true for people like him.
They looked for him and found him … and they told him.
All in a particular place and time where they knew he would be alone to absorb the news that would change his life.
The scene, like a happy take on a Liam Neeson movie that ends with champagne showers instead of bullets, was an example of a little-known ability that Lotto has used only twice to make sure its winners receive their loot directly.
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The Morrinsville winner had done it with the $ 5.5 million Lotto Powerball drawing on October 17.
The family told him to check his ticket, but he never did. The award was unclaimed for a month before Lotto took up the case and delivered the good news in person.
But before that, Lotto had to do some research.
In such cases, staff log into the Lotto gaming system, retrieving when and how the ticket was purchased.
If the information is not useful, then they look at the CCTV footage and, on rare occasions, hire private investigators.
Parents worry that big lottery winnings will end up making their kids lazy. (Video first published in February 2020)
It is only the second time that Lotto NZ has personally approached a winner.
In 2013, staff knocked on the door of a Christchurch home and told a man that he had made $ 22 million. He had thought the prize had already been claimed.
Marie Winfield, head of communications for Lotto NZ, said that in this case the staff knew enough about the Morrinsville winner to know his movements throughout the day, so two Auckland staff members got in the car and drove to where I was.
“They went where they knew he would be and managed to catch him out on the street at a time when he was not surrounded by anyone and they approached him,” Winfield said.
“We were very lucky in this situation … we were able to locate the person with relative ease … fortunately today technology makes it a little easier.
“It’s not every day you go up to someone on the street and tell them that we think they are a billionaire.
“They said the best thing was seeing the expression on the man’s face when he checked the ticket and realized they weren’t kidding, describing it as ‘absolutely priceless.’
“We were 100 percent sure when we approached him, he was the one who bought the ticket.
“While he was standing there, he went to his car, retrieved the ticket and they were able to verify it on the spot.
“There is always the fear that someone has lost it.”
The family visited Lotto head office in Auckland to claim their prize and are finally celebrating the big win.
They haven’t made any big decisions about what to do with the money, but they said they would like to pay off their mortgage.
Next, the winner wants to make sure their children are prepared for the future.
“Anyway, I never thought I would be the lucky winner, it’s unbelievable,” he said in a statement.
“It was a huge shock when the people from Lotto came up to me and said they thought I was the owner of a ticket worth $ 5.5 million.
“I kept thinking, you have to be kidding… but you weren’t.
“They asked me if I had my ticket with me, which I did, so we manually dialed the numbers using the Lotto NZ app. They all agreed and the first thing the lady said was to write my name on the back.
Tom Lee / Stuff
Morrinsville, famous for its giant and colorful cows in the city, is now also home to a mega lottery.
“That’s when I realized it, and I thought, oh my God, this changes my life.
“Next time I’ll listen to my daughter tell me to check my ticket.”
After the news, the man went home and told his wife that they were $ 5.5 million richer.
“He came home and said, ‘We have to go to Auckland this week love…. I won the lottery. ‘ It really was amazing, but I knew he was telling the truth. “
Then the man called his daughter.
“I called her and said, guess what? Two people from Lotto visited me today to tell me that I was the winner of $ 5.5 million in Morrinsville, ‘”he laughed.
Powerball tickets are generally claimed within two to three days. Lotto NZ will wait a few weeks before starting to search for someone.
“We just want people to have their prize, we are not interested in keeping it,” Winfield said.
And as far as Winfield knows, only a $ 1 million ticket has gone unclaimed.
Kelly Hodel / Stuff
Morrinsville is a busy community.
Tickets expire after 12 months and the longer Lotto NZ waits, the harder it is to find them.
In 2019, a $ 17.1 million prize went unclaimed for three weeks, while the winner from the South Island quietly accepted the victory before claiming his prize.
That same year, a Powerball prize of $ 12.2 million was unclaimed for more than two weeks.
In 2017, it took a couple from Gisborne two weeks to claim their $ 6.5 million Powerball and in 2014, a couple from Hamilton sat on their $ 16.2 million win for 10 days.
The ticket in Morrinsville was sold at Paper Plus Morrinsville for the drawing on Saturday, October 17, 2020.
