Facebook post tips woman off to $3.5 million lottery win

An Australian woman who won a $3.5 million lottery jackpot said she only checked her ticket after seeing a Facebook post about the unclaimed prize.

The Bargo, New South Wales, woman told The Lott officials that she bought a ticket for the Set for Life drawing from Bargo Newsagency, but she didn’t check the results after the drawing until she was tipped off by social media.

“I had absolutely no idea. I had seen on the Bargo Community Facebook Page that someone had won division one in Set for Life, but they couldn’t find the winner,” the woman recalled.

“Everyone was going absolutely wild, and so I thought I’d better head down to the news agency to check my tickets too,” she said. “I scanned my ticket and next thing I know they’re telling me I scored division one in Set for Life.”

The woman scored the drawing’s $3.5 million top prize.

“I don’t really remember what happened next. My mind went blank from the shock. My legs went all jiggly; I had to hold myself up,” she said.

The winner said the money will allow her to retire.

“I have worked in a really stressful job for decades, and I think I am almost done with that,” she said. “The first thing I will look at doing is retiring from work.

“Then I would love to donate to a few charities that really mean something to me. When we can travel overseas again, I’d like to a book a first-class flight for a first-class holiday.”