A Queensland mum thought she had lost her lotto ticket for Thursday’s $100million Powerball draw – before finding the winning numbers in her car.
The lucky mother – whose name has not been revealed – said she only checked in the glovebox after hearing there was a mystery winner near her home in Apsley, Brisbane.
‘The funny thing is too, I almost lost it! I had to pull over on the way home from the shops because I thought I had left it there,’ she said.
‘After that, I put it in my glovebox, and I completely forgot about it until this morning.
‘I’m scared to breathe in case this isn’t real. We’re in complete shock.’
When asked how she might enjoy $100 million, the Aspley resident from Brisbanes north admitted she’d need a moment to fathom the enormity of the win before making any firm plans.
‘We don’t even know what’s next. We’ve worked so hard our whole lives for everything we’ve had, and we really don’t live a lavish lifestyle,’ she said.
‘We’d like to do some travelling. Maybe a family holiday somewhere. We’ve always wanted to go see New Zealand and Fiji.
A Queensland mum thought she had lost her lotto ticket for Thursday’s $100million Powerball draw – before finding the winning numbers in her car. (stock image, not the winner pictured)
Thursday night’s Powerball jackpot was the sixth largest in Australian lottery history
One in two Aussie adults were expected to buy a ticket for Thursday night’s Powerball draw
‘It’s so weird. I can’t even say it out loud right now!’
The winning entry was purchased at Nextra Newsagency at Westfield Chernside, which has previously sold several big winning tickets in the past.
Owner Shannon Hickey said it was ‘crazy’ to see another big division one win land at his outlet.
‘It’s so exciting! We’ve had so many division one wins over the years,’ he said.
‘We counted up the other day and realised we’d sold division one winning tickets worth more than $64 million. Now we’ve sold over $164 million!’ he said.
‘Funnily enough, about a decade ago, we sold a $40 million Oz Lotto prize and at the time, that was the third biggest win in Australia.
‘Now, this $100 million Powerball prize is the third biggest win in Australia and the biggest in Queensland.
‘It’s just fantastic and means we are the luckiest store in Australia!
‘Congratulations to our winners. We wish them all the very best with their prize.’
Up to half of Australia’s adult population were expected to buy a ticket for Thursday night’s draw.
The winning entry was purchased at Nextra Chermside Newsagency,
The last six figure jackpot was in May, when an Adelaide man became the biggest lottery winner in Australian history after a $150million windfall.
Twelve Powerball division one winners have now pocketed more than $592million so far this year, with five wins each in NSW ($210m) and Queensland ($220m), and one each in South Australia ($150m) and Victoria ($12m).
More than half of the winning entries were QuickPicks, and almost half were PowerHit entries, which is a Powerball entry that guarantees the Powerball number needed to win division one.
The jackpot goes back to $4million for next week’s Powerball draw.
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