The mystery Gold Coast winner of Saturday’s Gold Lotto draw has finally been found.
The Lott put a call out to track down the lucky local earlier this week after they failed to claim the prize and officials had no way of contacting them.
A Nerang woman has since come forward as the ticket holder, admitting she was left in disbelief after initially brushing off her son’s suggestion that she might be the mystery local winner.
To her surprise, he was in fact correct, with the woman holding one of nine division one winning entries across the country in Saturday’s draw, each taking home a cool $741,935.70.
“Oh my god. I’m pretty numb right now,” she cried.
“I’ve never won anything, not even a chook raffle! I can’t believe this.
“I had absolutely no idea. I usually check my tickets later in the week but pulled into the newsagent today while I was around.
“Just yesterday, my son sent me a thing saying someone in the area had won, and he said ‘Mum, it could be you’. I just thought ‘I highly doubt it, and I’ll check it when I check it!’.
“Gosh, my husband’s not going to believe me! I’ve been playing for decades. It’s life-changing.
“I just can’t believe I’ve won $740,000. I’ve never had that amount of money sitting in my bank account.”
The woman said she plans on using the windfall to pay off her house and tick travelling to Alaska off her bucket list.
“It’s always been a dream to pay off my house, and now I can!” she said.
“I’d also love to do a holiday. I’ve always wanted to go to Alaska.”
The winning entry was purchased from Nerang Fair News & Gifts at the Nerang Fair Shopping Centre.
