Wollongong mechanic spent Christmas unaware he'd won $1.5 million
A self-employed motorcycle mechanic from Wollongong spent the Christmas holiday season totally unaware that he was a Powerball millionaire while a fortune sat unclaimed on top of the family microwave.
Despite winning $1.5 million in Powerball draw 499 on 8 December 2005, it wasn’t until yesterday he found out he was a millionaire.
“You won’t believe this but the ticket was sitting on top of the microwave for a month. I was experiencing a bad run of luck with a leg injury, including being hospitalised twice and hadn’t had a chance to check any of my tickets,” the winner told a NSW Lotteries official late yesterday afternoon.
“I always buy and check my tickets near where I work. Yesterday we had to go to the business so we took a stack of tickets that hadn’t been checked but because of my leg I stayed in the car. My partner came back with a man from the newsagency to tell me I’d won $1.5 million because she knew I wouldn’t believe her. She was right because at first I thought she meant $1,500,” he joked.
While he has more than enough to go on a belated Christmas shopping spree, the winner said that he only needs to spend $100,000 to buy the three things he wants – a new Subaru Liberty, a Bass Fisherman boat and a Rolex watch. He said the rest would be his partner’s responsibility to invest and buy property to make sure their future is financially secure.
When the happy couple visited NSW Lotteries Head Office at Homebush Bay in Sydney yesterday afternoon to claim their prize they were both grinning from ear to ear. “All the pain in my leg has gone and life is looking fantastic again,” the winner said.
The winning Powerball Megapick ticket costing $17.60 was purchased from the Penrith Valley Newsagency, at 385 High Street, Penrith.
Powerball is the most difficult Lotto game to win, because the winning numbers are extracted from two ball-drawing machines instead of one. Five balls are drawn from the first ball-drawing machine and a single ball, the Powerball, is drawn from the second ball-drawing machine.