A man from Wellington, New Zealand, received a call from his bank earlier this week. The manager was concerned about a large transaction that had been applied to the man's account overnight and wanted to check if the man knew anything about it. "Yes," he said. "I've just won the Lotto."
The lucky winner, who has chosen to remain anonymous, won a second tier prize of NZD$ 1 million in the Saturday, April 5, 2014, New Zealand Powerball drawing, but never checked his ticket until last week.
"I went to buy a ticket for the big Powerball jackpot on this weekend and saw some old tickets at the back of my wallet," the man explained. "As I checked them one flashed up major prize and I thought 'this is good'. Then I gave it to the Lotto lady and she told me I'd won a million dollars—it was even better than good!"
The winner admits his bank account is usually overdrawn so there is little wonder such a big swing in the opposite direction came as a surprise to staff at the bank.
Kiwibank representative Bruce Thompson calculated the figures and said the winner has missed out on over NZD$ 5,000 in interest by not checking his ticket and claiming his prize earlier. Thompson also suggested the winner should take his time and consider the best use for his prize.
"The worst thing you can do is go on a spending spree right after you get the money," Thompson said, but the winner's daughter may have other ideas. He shared the good news with her on Thursday morning via a text message and she texted back: "Dad, take the day off—let’s go shopping."
