After throwing a few suspected non-winning Instant Scratch-Its tickets in the bin, a Castlemaine had a feeling she’d actually won big, so she retrieved them and discovered she’d won $10,000.

The top prize winning $1 Happy Camper Instant Scratch-Its ticket was purchased at Castlemaine Newsagency, Shop 1, 45 Mostyn Street, Castlemaine.

This morning, we reached out to the winner, who was still trying to comprehend her exciting win.

“I normally play TattsLotto once a week, but I decided to give Instant Scratch-Its a turn about a month ago,” she explained.

“So, every week for the past month, I’ve been buying about $10 worth of Instant Scratch-Its tickets.

“We’d been doing the housework all morning, and we’d just washed the floors, so my husband and I went outside while the floors were drying. While we waited, I scratched the tickets.

“I’d scratched all the Instant Scratch-Its tickets and only thought I’d won a few dollars on one of the tickets, so I threw the rest in the bin.

“Later, though, I decided to recheck the tickets because I just had this weird feeling, so I grabbed them out of the bin.

“I’m so glad I checked them. If I didn’t, I would be missing out on winning $10,000!

“I was gobsmacked when I saw the win. I said to my hubby, ‘No way! Oh my god! Am I going mad, or have I just won $10,000?’.

“He looked at the ticket and then back at me and said, ‘Wow! Gee, you’re calmer than I’d expect!’.

“After that, it did hit me! I kept thinking, ‘Wow! That is a lot of money!’.

“Yesterday, we went to The Lott head office in Melbourne to claim it, and we enjoyed a day there to celebrate – it was lovely.

“When I told my kids, they said, ‘It’s your shout for the next dinner!’. So, we’ll do that to celebrate, too.

“I’d love to go away soon – maybe for a road trip. We might even look at getting a caravan!

“When we go away, we usually try to eat in a bit to save some money, but now, we won’t have to! We can eat out wherever we want.

“I also will use a bit to buy some cooking utensils. But it’s still so overwhelming. I can’t believe it!”

Castlemaine Newsagency team member Kate Arnold said the entire team was ecstatic to have made another customer a major prize winner.

“How exciting for them!” she said.

“We’ve had a lot of big wins over the years, and we’re always so happy to sell another.

“We’d love to send our congratulations to our winner. Hopefully, she enjoys it, and we wish her all the best for the future.

“Big wins generate so much positivity, so we’ll certainly be sharing this news with all our customers.”