A LOTTERY winner had to wait six-months to claim a six-figure prize because he dried his soaking wet winning ticket with a piping hot iron.
The silly mistake has been revealed by lotto worker Andy Carter, who said the winner was left “horrified”.
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Andy said his job feels like a “real privilege” because he gets to meet people at a time of their life that they will never forget.
And while most winners claim their tickets with little anguish, not all winners have a smooth-sailing journey to their newly-won pot of gold.
Speaking to Business Insider, the lotto advisor revealed when a man won a six-figure pay out, but only realised after he had mistakenly ran it through a washing machine when leaving his wallet in his jeans pocket.
And to double-down on the error he tried to dry it – using an iron – and watched as his soaking wet ticket went up in smoke.
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The lotto expert told the media outlet: “One time I dealt with a man who claimed his prize with us in plenty of time.
“He was an older man and he lived by himself, and he put his trousers in the washing machine along with his wallet.
“In the wallet was some cash, along with his winning ticket — it was worth hundreds of thousands of pounds.
“Anyway, the wallet came out of the washing machine with everything intact.
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“But the banknotes were all sort of screwed up. So he gave them a quick iron — and he also gave his ticket a quick iron.”
And it was this move that almost cost the elderly winner a life-changing amount of cash.
Andy, added: “The paper in our tickets reacts to heat — when the heat of an iron hits it, it goes black.
“Everything, all the numbers and all the barcodes — all the information we need on the front of the ticket just went black.
Andy said the winner – who at the time may not have won a thing thanks to his not-so-quick thinking – was “horrified”.
Thankfully though, because he had already called lotto to claim his prize they already had all the information they needed – but he still had to endure a six-month wait before he could get his hands on the mammoth amount of cash.
Andy, said: “But as he had already called in before this happened, we already had all the right information from him, the numbers and so forth. If he hadn’t called in, we’d have had a real problem.
“We had to do a lot of investigation, and he had to wait a long time for that money to be paid — 180 days is the claim period, and we had to see whether or not anyone else would come forward with a ticket.
“He got paid eventually — but it was a six-month wait because he ironed the ticket.”
Many dream of winning big on their weekly lotto picks – and some get to live it – winning chests of cash so big they needn’t worry about getting to work on time the next day.
South Wales based Les Scadding, 73, was unemployed and £68 overdrawn when he forgot his usual “lucky” numbers and bought a lucky dip.
The Welshman won a mouth-watering £45million on the Euromillions.
At the time, he told the Guardian: “When I asked the people behind the counter to check the numbers, the machine just printed out a pink slip, telling me to contact Camelot.
“I thought I might have won around £50,000, and I rushed home to tell Samantha (his now ex-wife).
“When we realised I had all seven, we nearly dropped the laptop.”
And he’s not the only lucky winner whose life changed forever after copping a lottery ticket.
Joe and Jess Thwaite won a record-breaking EuroMillions jackpot in May 2022 – they netted a cool £184million.
However, for some, cashing in tickets worth millions of pounds can become too much to cope with and many winners have shared tales of their lives spiralling out of control after banking their winnings.
Gillian Bayford landed £148million back in 2012 – but has since told how the jackpot separated her from family members and friends, and claims even her own parents “disowned her”.
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She said: “They’ve disowned me because I embarrass them.
“But they’ve been more than happy to take my money.”
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