04 April 24

Milk mishap leads to money magic: Nerang woman’s forgetfulness turns into $100,000 Instant Scratch-Its win

By Khat McIntyre-Intrachai

Updated 4 April 2024 - 2:42 pm,

first published at 4 April 2024 - 2:42 pm

A Nerang woman has humorously attributed her $100,000 Instant Scratch-Its triumph to the simple oversight of forgetting to pick up a bottle of milk while at the shops.

The top-prize winning $5 Instant Scratch-Its ticket was purchased at Friendly Grocer Emerald Lakes, 5/3027 The Boulevard, Carrara.

The winning woman relayed how the mouth-watering instant win came about when an official from The Lott confirmed the prize earlier this morning.

“How exciting!” she giggled.

“It was certainly a fluke of a story!

“I was at the hairdresser, and I was supposed to buy a bottle of milk for the family after I had finished up, but I had forgotten to.

“I came home, and my husband questioned where the bottle of milk was.

“He went out on a mission to buy this forgotten bottle of milk and while he was at the grocer he ended up buying two Instant Scratch-its tickets.

“I ended up scratching the tickets, and at first, I thought I’d only won $10,000, but then I noticed another zero!

“I turned to my husband and told him about the win but then he questioned if it was true. I re-read the back of the ticket a couple of times to make sure it was real.

“We couldn’t believe it. It’s just amazing!”

With $100,000 heading to her bank account, the Queenslander shared they’d use the prize to go furniture shopping.

“We’re actually going to buy some furniture with the prize; we’re going today!” she revealed.

“We would love to buy a couple of recliners.

“It’s also our wedding anniversary next week, so we’ll be celebrating the milestone and our win over a bottle of champagne!

“Thank you so much.”

Friendly Grocer Emerald Lakes manager Kisha said her team were extremely happy to have sold a top prize-winning entry and have started to tell all of their customers.

“This is our first top prize winning Instant Scratch-Its ticket that we’ve sold and we’re so pleased. It’s amazing knowing a ticket that we’ve sold has helped change someone’s life,” she said.

“We’ve started to decorate the store and tell all of our customers about the winning news. As it’s a first for our store, it’s certainly an exciting time.

“We’re extremely honoured to have played a part in this success and eager to continue supporting our customers to even greater accomplishments.

“We would like to congratulate to our customer for their incredible win. We’re thrilled for you and hope this win brings you endless joy. All the best!”

In 2023, there were 144 Instant Scratch-Its top prize winners across The Lott’s jurisdictions who collectively took home more than $12.1 million in top prizes.

During this same time, Instant Scratch-Its players enjoyed more than 26.76 million wins across all prize tiers worth more than $249.17 million. This equates to more than half a million winners a week and about $700,000 won on Instant Scratch-Its every day.

Every month, Instant Scratch-Its’ 2nd Chance Draw gives you another chance to turn your eligible non-winning Instant Scratch-Its into a winner. Visit thelott.com to enter this month’s 2nd Chance Draw.

The official home of Australia’s lotteries, The Lott operates and markets Australia’s leading lottery games customers know and love creating everyday winners, winning every day.

In 2023, more than 122.7 million wins took home more than $3.76 billion in prize money from their favourite games at The Lott, including Saturday Gold Lotto, Monday & Wednesday Gold Lotto, Powerball, Oz Lotto, Set for Life, Lucky Lotteries, Keno (SA), Super 66, Lotto Strike and Instant Scratch-Its.

Last financial year, Australia’s official lotteries contributed more than $1.6 billion via state lottery taxes and donations to help community initiatives, such as hospitals, health research, disaster relief and education.