$31m winning lottery ticket kept in sock drawer

The winners of a $31m lottery have revealed how they kept the lucky ticket in their sock drawer for a “nerve-racking” week.

The winners of a $31m lottery have revealed how they kept the lucky ticket in their sock drawer for a “nerve-racking” week.

The winners of a $31 million lottery have revealed how they hid the lucky ticket in their sock drawer for a very “nerve-racking” week as they processed their life-changing win.

The anonymous winning couple, from Christchurch, New Zealand, bought a Powerball Dip just a week out from the multimillion-dollar draw on Wednesday.

The woman said she had been doing chores on the day of the draw and didn’t check the ticket until late at night.

The winners of a $31 million lottery have revealed how they hid the lucky ticket in their sock drawer.

“I had been busy doing a few things, and then I thought I may as well check my ticket before I went to bed. I looked the numbers up online and started checking each line of the ticket,” she said, per Lotto NZ.

“The winning line was right at the bottom, and the numbers just sort of jumped out at me — all of them.

“I couldn’t breathe at first. I was almost hyperventilating.”

Unable to believe their luck, she woke her husband to check the numbers because they were “dancing on the paper”.

Her husband confirmed it was “very real”, she said, adding: “It was hard to get back to sleep after that.”

The NZ$33.5 million (A$31 million) win is the lottery’s largest so far this year, eclipsing the NZ$21.8 million (A$20.3 million) won by a ticket bought in Quay Street, Auckland, on January 18.

The couple said they were in no rush to claim their millions and kept the ticket hidden in a sock drawer as they absorbed the news.

They sat on the winning ticket for more than a week before coming forward to claim the huge prize, according to Lotto NZ.

The couple said it was a “nerve-racking” week.

The woman said it was a “nerve-racking” week as she worried about the house burning down with the ticket inside.

“I kept thinking, ‘goodness, I better make sure the iron is turned off’ every time I went out,” she said.

The couple took their time to claim their prize because, she said, “we wanted to keep things normal while we thought about our next steps”.

Her husband was thrilled by the multimillion-dollar windfall, saying it would help their family “for generations to come”, while some of the cash would be donated.

“It is also enough for us to help community causes we care about over the long term and make a lasting difference, and that is what we are focused on,” he said.

“Winning this is definitely a defining moment of our lives.”

Originally published as $31m winning lottery ticket kept in sock drawer