A Quakers Hill man has admitted he couldn’t contain his excitement and gave his dog the fright of his life when he discovered his $1.7 million Lotto Strike win on the weekend.
The Sydneysider held the only division one winning entry in Lotto Strike draw 5412, drawn Saturday 16 March 2024. He looks forward to a total prize of $1,704,523.
The winning entry was unregistered which means officials from The Lott had no way of contacting the ticketholder and had to wait for them to check their ticket and come forward.
Despite discovering his new millionaire status on Sunday morning, the winning man only claimed his prize at The Lott headquarters on Wednesday.
“I can’t believe it!” he hysterically laughed.
“I was alone at home eating breakfast because my wife was away for the weekend. I thought I’d check my numbers while sitting at the breakfast table.
“I saw the first winning number and I said to myself, ‘Oh! I won a free ticket!’. As I started to go down the ticket, I noticed I had another number and I said, ‘I won one hundred bucks!’.
“Then I saw I had three numbers and I said, ‘Wow! Five hundred bucks!’.
“It just kept going, and then I saw the fourth number and I started to yell, ‘You beauty! You beauty!”.
“My poor dog jumped out of his bed and ran away – my little pupper was so scared but then he got excited.
“My dog was the first one I told! My wife finally came home on Monday, and she was a bit tired from the trip, so I didn’t think it was the best time to tell her about the win.
“On Tuesday morning, I asked her when she was free to go for a drive because I wanted to surprise her and because she was free yesterday, I went and claimed the prize.
“We got in the car, and I took her straight to The Lott prize claim office. She was gasbagging me the entire drive, asking me where we were going.
“As soon as we walked out of the lift, she immediately burst out into tears. She just kept crying, and crying, and crying.
“It’s funny because I don’t even normally buy tickets into Lotto Strike draws but the bloke at the newsagency had recommended it to me and I said, ‘Why not! Give me eight lucky games’.
“I don’t normally visit the newsagency on a Friday too. I always buy my tickets on a Saturday, so it’s funny how it all unfolded.
“What a fortunate series of events!”
With $1.7 million about to change the course of his life for 2024, the New South Welshman revealed it would help his family immensely.
“We were going through a tough trot, so this will really help us financially,” he shared.
“It will be such a positive influence on our family.
“It was so nice to hear from The Lott.”
His winning entry was purchased at Quakers Court Newsagency, Shop 5, Quakers Court Shopping Centre, Cnr Quakers Road & Falmouth Road, Quakers Hill.
Quakers Court Newsagency owner Jeff Shen said his team was overjoyed to hear their winner has now checked their ticket and come forward.
“We were so excited to hear that we had sold a Lotto Strike division one winning entry, and we couldn’t be happier for the winning man,” he said.
“We’ve already decorated our store with balloons and posters and sharing this great news with our customers.
“Our customers have been super pleased to hear that their local newsagency has sold another division one winning ticket!
“Congratulations to the winning man and we wish him all the best with his prize.”
The winning numbers in Lotto Strike draw 5412 on Saturday 16 March 2024 were 44, 40, 35 and 17.
Lotto Strike is an add-on game played with Saturday Lotto and Monday & Wednesday Lotto. Lotto Strike’s division one prize is won by selecting the first four numbers in the exact order they are drawn during the Lotto draw.
If no one picks all four winning numbers in the draw in same order drawn, the Lotto Strike Jackpot prize pool will jackpot for the next draw.
The Lott’s division one winning tally has now reached 311 so far in FY24, including 104 won by NSW Lotteries customers.
