A woman thought she had won $20,000AUD (£10,300) on the lottery - but quickly discovered it was actually $20m (£10.3m).
The player from New South Wales on the east coast of Australia was thrilled when she calculated what she thought was her prize in the Powerball game. Making her purchase from the Gladstone Newsagency and General Store on Thursday, she didn't sit down to watch the draw - and her had numbers came in.
After waking the next morning to check, she went to tell her family the great news. After planning what she would do with the $20,000, the unnamed woman was had a shock in store and was informed she had got her maths very wrong. She's never made a better mistake and now has a life transforming sum to spend.
"I got up this morning and checked my ticket," she told lottery officials a couple of days after her incredible win. "I looked at it and then ran to my family and said, 'I've won $20,000'. They looked at it and then looked at me and said, 'No you haven't.... you've won $20 million'." She said she would have been more than happy with $20,000 and a first step on the property ladder is her plan - and the holiday of her dreams. "I want to get a house and I'd love to go travelling around the world," she added. "I keep thinking I'll wake up and I'll be back in reality."
She told officials she thought she was in 'fairyland' after getting a huge shock (WILL OLIVER/EPA-EFE/REX/Shutterstock)Let's hope red faced Brit Dean Smethurst doesn't get wind of the win. He believed he had scooped £50,000 on the National Lottery last year and rang up everyone he knew before realising he had actually won just £6 of prizes. had his national lotto card checked in Tesco on May 8 and was told by the woman on the checkout he had won on the Saturday game.
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The supermarket worker told Dean the machine said she could not pay out his winnings and he would have to instead contact Camelot. This prompted Dean to check the terms and conditions of the Camelot website - where he realised this message was usually given for wins of at least £50k which could not be paid out in a retail shop. In a state of shock, Dean - a supermarket manager who has played the lottery for six years - dashed home before telling all of his friends and family the news.
He began to work out what he could spend the money on and 'cracked open the bubbly' - without thinking to check his numbers against the draw. However, when the lottery phone lines opened again the next morning, Dean was given the devastating news that his luck was out. His win actually turned out to be three lucky dips on a future game - worth just £2 each.
He said: "I didn’t sleep because I was so excited. My house is like a building site at the moment so that was the first thing that I decided to spend my winnings on. Then I decided to treat the family to a luxury holiday to Barbados. I spoke to the checkout girl and gave her the serial number of the ticket.
"She inputted it and said: ‘Well done, you’ve won...three lucky dips’. I asked her if she was sure, and then I asked to speak to a manager. I am absolutely gutted. I thought, ‘this is it, it’s for real, my numbers have come up’. I never thought to check my numbers, I didn't think a company as large as Camelot could have got it wrong, I didn't understand."
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