Lotto: Bay of Plenty man plans to splash out for Valentine’s Day after big Strike win

A Bay of Plenty man plans to splash out on Valentine's Day after his big Lotto win. Photo / 123RF

One romantic plans to splash out for Valentine’s Day after a big Lotto win.

The Bay of Plenty man was in disbelief after winning $700,000 in Strike Four in Saturday’s live draw after buying a ticket from Te Puna Four Square in Tauranga, Lotto NZ said today.

The man, who wishes to remain anonymous, found out about his win in the early hours of Sunday morning.

“I saw online that someone won Strike from a ticket bought at the same store that I bought mine from, but I thought, ‘Nah, it won’t be me.’

“Still, I thought I may as well check my ticket, so I pulled up the results and started marking the numbers on my ticket,” he said.

“When all four numbers lined up, I couldn’t believe it, so I scanned my ticket on MyLotto and got my family to double-check it. It was pretty surreal.”

The lucky winner claimed his prize in-store “first thing in the morning”.

“The retail operator was over the moon for us.”

With his prize safely claimed, the man is now looking ahead.

“We’ve started planning already. We want to make the money go as far as possible.”

“But first we’ll splash out and celebrate on Valentine’s Day – I’ll have to shout my wife something nice,” he said.

Twenty-one Lotto players, including four from Tauranga, Mount Maunganui, Rotorua and Taupō, each won $12,965 with Lotto’s Second Division tickets in Saturday’s draw.

Those winning tickets were sold at Countdown Fraser Cove (Tauranga), Girven Rd Micro Mart, Western Heights Foodmarket (Rotorua) and Paper Plus Taupō store.

The lucky Rotorua player, also won the Powerball Second Division draw, taking their total winnings to $30,837.