Australian Powerball winner has no idea what to do with $23 million winnings

 

AUSTRALIAN POWERBALL WINNER HAS NO IDEA WHAT TO DO WITH $23 MILLION WINNINGS

This morning in Queensland, Australia, staff at Tosh’s Convenience Store in Ayr, near Townsville, woke up to the realisation that they had sold the winning $23 million ticket for the Australian Powerball lottery draw.Store manager, Hayley Williams, said that one of her staff members called her at 4.15am to tell her the good news, and Ms Williams said that the staff member, Julie, was so excited that she couldn’t open the store. “We had to go down and help her open up… the place has been buzzing ever since,” she said as she waited in her store with Julie for the lucky winner to come in, which could have taken a while, especially considering a recent Australian Lotto winner didn’t realise they were a millionaire for four days.The numbers that were chosen and thus went on to win the Powerball $23.3 million jackpot were 3, 5, 19, 26, 35 and 1 with a Powerball number of 18, and Ms Williams said that after each jackpot drawing a message is delivered on the store’s lottery terminal displaying whether there have been any top prize winners. “A little message pops up on the lotto terminal saying where the division 1 winners are and which news agency or outlet sold the ticket,” she said, explaining how the store that sold the Australian Powerball winning ticket to a syndicate from Darwin will have found out that they’d had a hand in a big win.As Ms Williams was waiting for her lucky customer to come into the store, a Queensland family was sitting in shock as they realised that it was their ticket that had won the $23.3 million Australian Powerball prize. The winning couple, who did not release their names, said that after they heard that a winning Powerball ticket had been sold in their town of Ayr, they decided to check online to see if they had won anything.“We couldn’t believe it when we discovered that we had the winning ticket,” said the wife, who added that the only thing she could say for some time after their realization was “wow”.Telling lottery officials of their plans now that they are millionaires, she echoed shocked sentiments of previous winners such as a couple from Western Australia who’s lives where changed after their lottery win: “I have no idea what we’ll do with the prize money. I really can’t get my head around the fact that we’ve won. I feel like someone is going to tell me that it’s all a joke.” Hopefully these lottery winners will have a better time than two friends from Victoria who are currently embroiled in a legal battle over a $2.5 million TattsLotto prize.For your chance of also becoming a winner, play your favourite lottery online at Lottery24.com.