(By Edwardx – Own work, CC BY-SA 4.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=39835549)
An English grandfather who was about to lose his job scooped a whopping £150,000 on the Irish Lottery. He bought the winning ticket with only £1.
Paul Walker didn’t check his ticket for four days. He had no idea that staff from the Betfred shop in Newton, Hyde, where he purchased his ticket from, were frantically searching for him – the lucky Lotto winner.
Meanwhile, the 56-year-old had been told that he was being made redundant and was suffering from a toothache.
The man from Dukinfield, Greater Manchester only bought the Lotto ticket as an afterthought, after losing a football accumulator in which he bet on his beloved Manchester United to lose to Watford. Before leaving the Betfred store, he purchased an Irish Lotto ticket with a spare £1 in his pocket.
As people around town and Paul’s colleague heard and talked about Betfred’s search for the winner, Paul finally had a look at his ticket and realised he had won £150,000.
“I’m being made redundant next year so this brilliant win has come at just the right time,” he told Betfred. Now, instead of worrying about having to re-train for another job, Paul and his wife Susan are now planning for a Mediterranean cruise.
“I’m a United fan but the odds on a Watford win were better so I knew all about my failed acca on Saturday afternoon, but forgot about the lottery ticket which I left in my shirt pocket,” the winner continued to tell the bookmaker.
“I had some change and thought to myself that I’d had some bad luck recently and could do with a miracle, so went for a lucky dip so the numbers are picked at random… then I forgot all about it.”
Aside from the cruise, the couple are planning a luxury holiday in Mexico. They’re also going to get a new car.
Fred Done, owner of Betfred, who arranged additional staff at the Newton branch to track the winner down, personally congratulated Paul on his massive windfall.
“It is perfect timing for Paul to beat the odds and win so much from such a tiny stake just as he’s to lose his job,” said Fred.
“Our staff did an excellent job finding Paul, while the moral of this story is to always check your betting slips.”
