KEY POINTS:
Denis Riordan has had Lotto winners work for him in the past, but New Plymouth's latest elusive millionaires aren't among them.
Mr Riordan is the manager of the New Plymouth branch of recruitment company Adecco, so would be one of the first to know if several jobs suddenly became vacant.
New Zealand's biggest lottery prize has been claimed by a New Plymouth family who take it in turns to buy the ticket each week.
But when the Weekend Herald visited this week, Mr Riordan hadn't heard of anyone who could be the winners throwing in their day jobs.
But he has seen millionaires before and said they all shared the same quirks in the days after their unexpected windfalls. "They all come into work on the Monday. But they leave on the Wednesday."
Over the past 14 years, and in a number of different businesses, he has had four staff win more than $1 million in Lotto.
"It's quite funny, actually. They all waited till the Wednesday to hand in their notice."
All four had confided to their workmates what had happened so everyone was surprised to see them when they turned up for work on the Monday morning.
"One guy was in his 60s. I asked him what on earth he was doing here and he told me he had a job to do, he'd started it and was going to finish it."
The man was a painter and continued to paint the house he'd been assigned to. "He came back to me on the Wednesday and said, 'Actually, Denis, I think this will be my last day'. I said to him, 'I should think so'."
Mr Riordan didn't think the latest winners, now of one the country's richest families, would be as obvious.
The Lotteries Commission has said the winners came to Wellington on Monday to claim the prize after the 19- year-old son discovered the winning numbers on Sunday night.
The Weekend Herald understands the family are still in Wellington and will spend the next couple of days in the capital, where they will come to terms with their win.
On the streets of New Plymouth yesterday speculation was mounting.
Glenys Farrant of the Brook Ale House said: "If it was one of my workmates and they weren't there on Monday and you found out they'd been in Wellington, then you would start to wonder."
One rumour was that the mother was a widower, because a father wasn't mentioned in the press release and there was talk of supporting a hospice.
But Hospice Taranaki spokesman Kevin Nielson was as much in the dark as anyone.
The hospice was hoping to raise $1 million from the community this year so a cheque in the mail would be most appreciated, he said.
"It would be a nice surprise."
Outside Pak'nSave, where the ticket was bought, shoppers were lamenting the fact they didn't buy the big one. "I didn't get my ticket from here last week for the first time in ages. It wasn't to be," one man said.
The Lotteries Commission had briefed staff on what they were to do if the winning ticket was claimed in the store because protocols - such as protecting the winners' privacy - had to be followed.
BIG MONEY, BIG QUESTIONS
Winning big in Lotto brings its own set of dilemmas. The Weekend Herald asked an ethics expert and a lawyer about the questions the $19 million winners could be asking themselves.
How to spend all that loot? Professor Elaine Wainwright, Auckland University School of Theology: "The advertisements on TV show images of what you can do ... you can do whatever you want. I think that raises ethical questions of what we can do with resources available to us. But it's a question for the lot of us.
"There are lifestyles you wouldn't want to take up. Do you go on food sprees or drinking sprees? I think those pressures are there all the time but this [Lotto win] just highlights it.
"You just have to look around. Relationships do change around money. I think if people see someone with more money than themselves it can bring big challenges. It can be subtle in some but very explicit in others."
Last week's $19 million was won by a 19-year-old who bought the ticket with his family each week. Is there anything to stop the person who buys the ticket from running off with all the cash? John Stirling, of Turner Hopkins Solicitors in Takapuna: "There's probably initially nothing you can do. It could conceivably end in a down and dirty battle.
"The others would need to supply affidavits confirming what took place each week surrounding the ticket buying. This could even lead to the person they bought the ticket from being called to give evidence.
"A contract is what we're talking about. It doesn't have to be written, it can be verbal."
Mr Stirling said the argument actually rested in contractual law and the courts would have to be convinced one existed before a ruling was made.
He said that as far as the Lotto organisers were concerned, their contract was between themselves and the buyer.
"That's why they say to get your name on the ticket."
