KEY POINTS:
A woman's "nagging" led her husband to buy a ticket in the $7.5 million Powerball with a couple of minutes to spare on Saturday night.
The Auckland man bought a lucky dip ticket only two minutes before the draw close off - and scooped the top prize of $7.5 million.
"My wife had been nagging me all week to get a ticket, so I when saw the Lotto sign in Westgate (Mall) I sprinted in to get the ticket before they closed at 7 pm," he said today.
"I must have been their last customer of the night."
The couple had no idea they were winners, until they checked their ticket while shopping at the Warehouse.
"We actually went to the Warehouse to check out their best price on an Elmo toy for one of the kids for Christmas," the man said.
"We are on a strict budget so were looking for the best possible deal.
"My wife wanted to get a sausage as well, but I did not have any change. So I decided to check our ticket in case I had won a small prize. I could not believe it when they said I was actually the big winner."
The man said that when he showed the prize printout to his wife, she was so happy as she thought they had won $7500.
"When she realised how much it really was, she fell to the floor, and then said `but all I wanted was a sausage'."
The man said the couple had had a rough couple of years, going to down to one income after having children.
"So we are now over the moon," they said.
"This is the best time for us - and right before Christmas. We are currently renting so our first priority will be to buy a house for us. Plus we will have to go back and get that Elmo now without worrying about the price."
"I have never been so glad to listen to my wife's nagging," he said.
The winning ticket was sold at Camera & Printz Westgate in Waitakere and was worth a total of $7.7 million which was made up of $7.5 million from Powerball first division and $200,000 from Lotto first division.
Another ticket sold in the store in June won $8 million.
- NZPA
