There was an agonising 10-minute wait, followed by tears of joy and frantic phone calls to family, as a young Maraenui woman discovered she’d become a millionaire.
The woman turned up at Maraenui Four Square on Monday with a Lotto ticket she had no idea was a winner and jammed the machine, sending store owner Kuljit Parihar into a frenzy.
The $1 million Christmas Triple Dip ticket was originally purchased from Andrew Spence Pharmacy in Onekawa, and Lotto confirmed it had since been claimed.
Parihar said when the machine jammed, staff knew the ticket had won something big, but were unable to identify the exact amount that had been won.
So she called Lotto, and after a few agonising minutes, they told her the amount - $1 million.