A Tasmanian man from Derwent Park has surprised his wife with the news that she is now a millionaire after he discovered their $1 million lottery win.
The couple are among five division one winners who shared the $5.2 million jackpot in Saturday night’s TattsLotto draw.
The winning ticket was unregistered, meaning lottery officials had no way of contacting the mystery winner.
The man said he had to find out if he was the winner after his wife saw in the news that the winning ticket was sold at their local newsagency.
“I had to found out, so I walked into the newsagency which I’ve been visiting for multiple decades and I said to the team member, ‘I supposed the win has been claimed?'” he said.
“He then informed me that it hadn’t been claimed yet, there was a bit of hope.”
The man scanned his ticket in-store and was told he had won a major prize.
“I called my wife straight away and I asked her, ‘When are you going to be home from work? I’ve got some news to tell you, but I can’t tell you until I get home.”
“She thought I had lost my job or something bad had happened! I gave her a mini heart attack. She was absolutely speechless.”
The couple say they plan to use their winnings to travel and “enjoy life to the fullest”, planning to travel next year.
Their winning ticket was purchased at Derwent Park Newsagency.
Owners Glenn Commane and James Warburton said they nearly fainted when they found out they had sold the winning ticket.
“What sensational news for our Tasmanian community! We saw the winning news on Sunday morning and we immediately nearly passed out,” Commane said.
“Our last division one winning entry was a few years ago now and it’s great to know that luck has come our way.”
“We’re really pleased to hear our mystery winner has come forward and claimed their prize now. We couldn’t be happier for them and we wish him and his family all the best.”
Saturday’s winning TattsLotto numbers for draw 4473 were 22, 42, 39, 28, 5 and 21, while the supplementary numbers were 13 and 29.
