ONE LUCKY NEW Zealand man will be well and truly in the festive spirit this Christmas after his best friend pledged to split his Lotto winnings with him.
The Dominion Post reports that last Wednesday’s winner of the $15 million Powerball jackpot (just over €9 million), from Porirua in the Wellington region, has decided to honour a years-old pact and split half his winnings with his friend.
Speaking to the post, the man, who wishes to remain anonymous, said that he wanted to surprise his friend with the news.
I really wanted to surprise him, so I handed him a photocopy of my winning ticket and the slip of paper with $15 million printed on it.
He looked at the paper, then at me with his mouth hanging open, pointing at the piece of paper. I just gave him the thumbs up and said, ‘I won the big one and half of it’s yours.’
His friend was said to be suitably shocked.
He couldn’t believe it and he kept saying ‘you’re joking, you’re joking’. It was a really great moment.
But there was a catch to the money being split – his friend has to take care of they other friends, bring them on a big holiday, and look after the community.
Generous
The generous New Zealander also scooped an extra $250,000 (about €150,000) on a separate prize, but decided to keep that for himself.
However, he split a large amount of his money with family, with each of his siblings getting $250,000 each for Christmas.
They all opened their envelopes at the same time, then looked at me in surprise and I said ‘Yip, I had the winning ticket’. There was a whole lot of celebrating after that.”
The man also got himself his dream car to celebrate the win, but said that he planned to stay working in his job and that his life wouldn’t change that much.
To embed this post, copy the code below on your site
have your say