‘Shocked’ lottery winner’s two-month wait to claim €500,000

It was a case of better late than never for a Limerick man who waited more than two months to collect €500,000 he won in the EuroMillions Plus draw.

The lucky winner scooped the prize on July 10th. But he left it late, two weeks before the deadline, to collect his windfall which was due to expire on October 8th.

Explaining his reasons for leaving it so late to collect the prize, he said his good fortune “came as huge shock to the system”.

“I needed to take some time out to come to terms with it. There are so many things that I want to do with the money and there so many people that I want to help. To avoid making any hasty decisions, I am glad that I made the sensible decision to wait patiently and make a proper plan for my winnings.”

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He bought his winning Quick Pick ticket on the day of the draw at the Tesco Superstore in Dooradoyle, just outside Limerick city. The lucky punter has become the 22nd winner of the € 500,000 prize in Ireland this year.

Lovely Leitrim

Meanwhile, another of today’s big winners in the National Lottery is a Leitrim man who scooped last Saturday’s Lotto Match 5 + Bonus prize of €97,236. The lucky Leitrim player only realised he had a winning ticket after he heard the news of the win in his locality on Monday. He bought the Quick Pick ticket at McCormack’s store in Leitrim village

“I had heard about the €1 million Lotto Plus 1 win in Westmeath over the weekend. So I didn’t bother to check my own ticket until I heard a radio report on Monday evening about the €97,000 Lotto win in Leitrim village,” he said.

“I scrambled for my ticket and my jaw nearly hit the floor when it come up as a winner. It may not seem like a lot of money, but this is huge for my family. We’re going to be very sensible with the money, most of it will be used to pay off the mortgage and other smaller bills which means we no longer have any real big outgoings from our wages for the rest of our lives. It’s just brilliant!” he said.