$22.6m Lotto prize still unclaimed

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With a $22.6 million Lotto Big Wednesday ticket still unclaimed people are being asked to search their drawers, glove boxes and wallets to see if they are the lucky winners.

The ticket was drawn on September 25.

A little Spring cleaning could uncover the winning numbers, catapulting an unsuspecting Lotto player into the champagne lifestyle, says Lotto New Zealand.

The lottery company today revealed some of the odd places were winning tickets have cropped up.

This year alone a Christchurch man found a $666,667 winning ticket in his `odds and ends' drawer, while an Auckland woman found her $500,000 ticket at the bottom of her handbag.

A survey of some of Lotto NZ's biggest winners over the last 26 years, conducted in May last year, cast a light on some of the unique habits of golden ticket holders.

The most common places to keep a ticket were wallets, drawers or under the pillow. However, one winner kept theirs in a Bible and others had theirs tucked away in the laundry cupboard, bookcase or china cabinet.

A couple of winners had left the ticket with their partner for safekeeping.

So if you bought a Big Wednesday ticket at Pak N Save Riccarton in Christchurch, then take a rummage in the pockets of your jeans or the junk drawer to see if you're the lucky winner.