Irish EuroMillions winner sneaks back to shop to buy champagne - but it almost backfires
An Irish couple who won €500,000 in the EuroMillions Plus draw almost had their secret exposed when they went back to SuperValu to buy champagne. They were among several big winners who collected their prizes from National Lottery HQ recently.
An Irish couple who won big in the EuroMillions have told how their big secret was almost exposed when they went back to the lucky shop to buy celebratory champagne.
The pair bought their Quick Pick ticket at SuperValu in Ratoath, Co Meath for the October 3 draw and were over the moon when they checked their ticket online and discovered they had won a life-changing €500,000 prize in the EuroMillions Plus draw.
They said: "We saw the news online, that a ticket had been won in Supervalu in Ratoath - We thought to ourselves, we bought our ticket there - maybe it was us? We immediately checked the ticket online, and sure enough it was us."
Feeling the need to mark the occasion, the man couldn't resist heading back to the store to buy some bubbly to celebrate. But things didn't go exactly as planned.
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He explained: "I went back to Supervalu to buy champagne - I couldn’t help myself." However, as he walked up to the counter, the staff member serving him casually remarked, "Did you hear we sold the winning EuroMillions ticket?"
The winner had to fight the urge to reveal his identity and keep the secret under wraps. He said: "I had to smile but didn’t tell them it was me."
The couple, still in disbelief over the win, revealed their exciting plans for the windfall. They said: "This is truly a life-changing sum of money for us, and we could not be more thrilled. This means we can clear off our mortgage and finally spend our salaries on us! We have family in Australia that we’ll go visit and enroute we’ll stopover in Thailand, somewhere we have always wanted to go, and spend some time there."
Collecting an even bigger win at National Lottery HQ recently was a syndicate from Mayo, who claimed the Lotto jackpot worth an astonishing €5,419,866 from the December 28 draw. They purchased the winning ticket from Carey's Newsagents in Belmullet, Co Mayo to become the 11th Lotto Jackpot winner of 2024.
Speaking on behalf of the syndicate, one member said: “We were all together on the night of the draw having a Christmas get together, when we discovered we had won. As you can imagine, there was great excitement on the night, and it has still yet to sink in.”
Asked about where the ticket has been kept while waiting to claim their prize, one member said: “The ticket has been kept in a magazine, in an envelope under a mattress - there was no way that ticket was going missing!”
A Dublin man also claimed his fantastic top prize of €200,000 on an All Cash Spectacular scratch card purchased in Spar, Ballyfermot, Dublin 16. Speaking to the National Lottery, he said: “At first, I thought I had won €20,000. I was delighted, and I passed the card to my son to double check it for me. Immediately he said, ‘Dad you didn’t win €20,000 - you’ve won €200,000!’
National Lottery spokesperson Darragh O’Dwyer said: “As the country braces the Arctic chill, these remarkable wins have given us all a reason to celebrate. There’s nothing quite like a life-changing prize to bring joy to our winners on a frosty day like today.”
Meanwhile, tonight’s EuroMillions Jackpot soars to an estimated €40 million. Players dreaming of becoming Ireland’s newest EuroMillions winner are reminded that tickets for tonight's draw can be purchased in-store, through the National Lottery app or at http://www.lottery.ie ahead of the 7.30pm cut off.
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