Man Claims €500,000 Lotto Plus 1 Prize with Four Days to Spare
Last Updated: Thursday 29th July 2021, 14:42 pm
A Co Meath man who hit the Lotto Plus 1 jackpot on Saturday 4th June eventually claimed his prize on Monday, with just four days to go until it expired. The fortunate player told lottery officials that he was certain he was a winner, but didn’t actually check his ticket until last week when a scanner in the shop confirmed his suspicions.
The father, who wishes to remain anonymous, bought his Irish Lotto entry on a family day out at the beach in Laytown and he recounted the story of how they happened to be in the town’s Post Office where he played his lucky lines. “We stopped off in the shop to buy some ice creams so I decided to do the Lotto. I was back in the shop a couple of days later and everybody was talking about the big win. I got the biggest shiver down my spine and without even looking at the numbers, I knew it had to be me,” said the laidback ticket holder, “I finally decided to check my numbers on a ticket scanner last week as I knew the deadline was approaching.”
On hearing an appeal from the Irish National Lottery for the winner to come forward, the man, who has yet to tell another soul about the win, decided to finally claim his prize, saying to himself, “I better go up to Dublin and claim it before the deadline.” He eventually picked up his cheque 86 days after the winning draw and now plans to secretly buy a new house and surprise his family with the good news once he has the keys in his hand.
The news comes just days after a Kilkenny woman found a ticket worth €130,025 in her handbag, which she had been carrying around for a fortnight, unaware of its value. Irish Lotto winners have 90 days to collect lottery prizes before they expire and are forfeited for good. Use the Irish Lotto Checker to discover straight away whether any of your old tickets have won you a prize.
Irish Lotto returns tonight with a jackpot worth €3 million and, for an extra fee, you can enter Lotto Plus 1, Lotto Plus 2 and Lotto Plus Raffle with prizes worth up to €500,000, €250,000 and €300 respectively.
