A Tranmere couple are thanking a spilled coffee for their $1.3 million windfall, after scoring division one in the weekend’s TattsLotto draw.
The Tasmanian pair held one of the three division one winning entries nationally in the weekend’s TattsLotto draw 4035, drawn Saturday 21 March 2020 and take home $1,386,240.79.
Sharing her joy with an official from the Lott this morning, one half of the duo revealed the unusual circumstances that lead to the life-changing win.
“It’s unbelievable! It just doesn’t seem real!” she exclaimed.
“We were just at home when we found out. I was on the phone and my partner was reading the paper and I heard him yell out ‘Oh no! Oh my god! You’d better come and look at this’.
“I thought something really bad had happened. So I go over and he is checking his ticket against the numbers in the paper and he says ‘I think we’ve won TattsLotto’.
“We checked it again and again to make sure we had the right draw number.
“We couldn’t believe it! We were both so emotional for hours afterwards.
“We buy a ticket every week and usually we put on two marked entries but my partner accidentally spilled coffee on one of them this week so we couldn’t put it on.
“So we grabbed a QuickPick instead – and that’s the one that won. We couldn’t believe it!”
When asked how they planned to enjoy their prize, the thrilled winner confessed it had come at the perfect time for a relaxing retirement.
“It’s just such fantastic news. It will help us pay off our mortgage and we are due to retire in the next couple of years so it will go a long way towards that,” she said.
“We’ve always said when we retired we’d buy a caravan and travel around the mainland of Australia so this win will make that plan a bit easier.
“We also have kids so we will do what we can to help them out as well.
“I don’t think they will believe us when we tell them! No one will! It’s just so unbelievable!”.
The happy winner also confessed that she didn’t let social distancing measures stop her from celebrating.
“We popped open a bottle of champagne yesterday afternoon and just celebrated with the two of us,” she explained.
“Since you must be so careful at the moment, we’ve put bigger celebrations on hold for now.
“We’ll still be telling all of our loved ones the good news – just over the phone instead!”
The thrilled winners, who wish to remain anonymous, purchased their winning entry at newsXpress Shoreline, Shop 3, Shoreline Shopping Centre, 6 Shoreline Drive, Howrah.
newsXpress Shoreline owner Gavin Cooney said he was thrilled they’d sold a division one winning entry.
“We were hoping it was one of our regulars! We are so happy it is!” he exclaimed.
“This is the second division one winning entry we’ve ever sold. The last was about three years ago.
“It’s great to have some good news in the current environment.
“All of our customers will be happy to hear we’ve sold a division one winning entry.
“Congratulations to our winners! We hope they enjoy their prize!”
In 2019, Monday & Wednesday Lotto and TattsLotto created 203 millionaires across Australia.
The winning numbers in TattsLotto draw 4035 on Saturday 21 March 2020 were 10, 27, 19, 33, 31 and 26, while the supplementary numbers were 9 and 43.
Across Australia, there were three division one winning entries in TattsLotto draw 4035 – one each for Victoria, Tasmania and Western Australia.
The Lott’s division one winning tally has now reached 270 so far this financial year, including 84 won by Tatts customers.
Between 1 January and 31 December 2019, there were 289 division one winning TattsLotto entries across Australia that collectively won more than $333.41 million.