Ten days after the draw, a Mathinna woman on her routine shopping trip this morning discovered she was the owner of the $443,000 division one TattsLotto prize officials had been searching for.
The unregistered entry was one of the nine division one winning entries across Australia in TattsLotto draw 3887 on 20 October 2018, with each division one winning entry taking home a prize of $443,884.30.
The winning entry was not registered to a Tatts Card so Tatts officials had no way of contacting the winner to break the life-changing news and had to wait until the woman came forward to claim her prize.
The woman was oblivious to her good fortune until her win was confirmed by a Tatts official.
“Oh my god! I am blown away! I’m speechless!” she exclaimed.
“I came into town this morning to do my groceries and put on my next entry and I just scanned my ticket.
“I only come into town every fortnight as I live in Mathinna and I pop in each time to put on my next entry.
“It’s completely taken me by surprise! I’m in shock! It just blows my mind!”
When asked how she planned to spend her TattsLotto windfall, the bewildered winner revealed her family were at the top of her Lotto List.
“I’ll help the kids out!” she declared.
“I’ve been doing a bit of renovations around the house so it will certainly help with that.
“We’ve always wanted to go to New Zealand too so I think we’ll plan a holiday!”
The winning ticket was purchased from Mowbray newsXpress and Lotto, Shop 15, 262 Invermay Road, Mowbray.
Mowbray newsXpress and Lotto store owner Kate Dolley said she was thrilled the winner had finally collected their prize.
“It is so exciting! We are so happy for our winner!” she exclaimed.
“We are so pleased they are united with their win and can start to enjoy it!”
So far this calendar year, Monday & Wednesday Lotto and TattsLotto have created 153 millionaires across Australia.
The winning numbers in Saturday TattsLotto draw 3887 on Saturday 20 October 2018 were 38, 14, 15, 42, 5 and 45, while the supplementary numbers were 8 and 22.
Across Australia there were nine division one winning entries in TattsLotto draw 3887 – two each from Victoria, New South Wales and Queensland and one each from Tasmania, South Australia and Western Australia.
The Lott’s division one winning tally has now reached 326 so far this calendar year, including 131 won by Tatts customers.
Last financial year, there were 290 division one winning TattsLotto entries across the Lott’s jurisdictions, which collectively won more than $302.7 million.