An East Parkdale man in his 30s has declared his division one winning entry the ‘best birthday present ever’ after a ticket gifted to him by a close friend yielded him a TattsLotto prize worth over $1.6 million.
 
The Melbourne resident held one of the 12 division one winning entries nationally in TattsLotto draw 3921, drawn Saturday 16 February 2019. Each entry takes home a division one prize of $1,666,666.67.
 
The ticket was unregistered so we had no way of contacting the winner with the life-changing news and had to wait for him to come forward to claim his prize.
 
When speaking with us this afternoon, Peter* said he was completely oblivious to his good fortune because he had completely forgotten about his ticket.
 
“Wow! I had no idea I had a winner!” Peter exclaimed with disbelief.
 
“I never win anything! I got it as a birthday present along with some scratchies and I never have any luck with these things!
 
“I don’t know what to say! It’s unbelievable!
 
“I’ve never dreamt of winning anything like this. I never have any luck ever but my luck sure is about to change.
 
“I completely forget about the ticket. My mum reminded me to check it because I kept forgetting to get around to checking it.
 
“She ended up taking it in herself to check and when she called me with the news – I couldn’t believe it!”
 
When asked how he planned to spend his out-of-the-blue windfall, Peter revealed he was looking forward to the future with this win.
 
“I’ll probably invest it!” he announced.
 
“I’ll put it away and invest in some property.
 
“My work keeps me quite busy so I might try and sneak in a holiday sometime soon.
 
“I’m not sure where I’ll go, but at the moment I’m thinking anywhere! I might just see where the win takes me!”
 
The winning entry was purchased at Highett Lotto & Tobacco, 304 Highett Road, Highett.
 
Highett Lotto & Tobacco co owner Mohit Jain said he was thrilled to discover the winner had been united with his prize.
 
“We’ve had a lot of people coming in to check their tickets to see if it was them,” he said.
 
“We are so happy for the winner and we wish them all the best with their prize!”

*Winners name has been changed for privacy reasons