A Mernda man was completely oblivious to winning $775,000 in TattsLotto for more than two weeks after taking his winning ticket 6,000 kilometres from home on an overseas holiday.
The triumphant traveller held one of the eight division one winning entries in TattsLotto draw 4351, drawn Saturday 1 April 2023, and takes home $775,265.76.
The winning entry was unregistered, which meant officials from The Lott had no way to contact the winner to break the exciting news and had to wait for them to come forward to claim their prize.
This morning, an official from The Lott spoke to the winning man, who was still reeling from the excitement of his discovery.
“It’s incredible!” he laughed.
“My wife and I were on holidays overseas for a couple of weeks, and I had accidentally taken the ticket with me. I had no idea it had won division one!
“Cash is the preferred currency where I was, and I kept the ticket in the cash section of the wallet.
“Gosh, the amount of times I’d taken cash in and out of the wallet. I could’ve lost the ticket a hundred times!
“I only returned home on the weekend, and as I was unpacking, I decided to finally check my TattsLotto ticket.
“The prize came up, and I said to myself, ‘No! That can’t be right! That can’t be right!’. I couldn’t believe it. I thought maybe I’d won $77 or $770, not $775,000!
“My wife decided to stay a few more weeks overseas, so I called her that afternoon to tell her the winning news. I said to her, ‘I think I’ve won TattsLotto!’ and she immediately thought I was joking.
“I took a screenshot of the results and sent it straight to her. We couldn’t believe it.
“I’m at the age of retirement, so perhaps this will allow me to cut back on hours or even retire earlier than expected.
“It’s great!”
His winning ticket was purchased at Mernda Lucky Charm, Shop 17, Mernda Town Centre, 1410 Plenty Road, Mernda.
Mernda Lucky Charm owner Tina Truong said she couldn’t be happier for her mystery winner and was glad they’d claimed their division one prize.
“We were so excited to hear that we had sold a division one winning entry in a TattsLotto draw!” she said.
“We started to decorate our store the following day, and we’ve been telling all of our customers that we’ve sold a division one winning entry earlier in April.
“Our customers have been eagerly checking their lottery tickets to see if they’re the mystery winner we’re searching for – everyone’s been super excited!
“Congratulations to the winner and we hope this win brings a lot of luck and happiness.”
The winning numbers in TattsLotto draw 4351 on 1 April 2023 were 10, 39, 36, 25, 45 and 5, while the supplementary numbers were 40 and 8.
Across Australia, there were seven division one winning entries in TattsLotto draw 4351 – four in Victoria, and one each in Queensland, New South Wales, and Tasmania.