Triple Rollover Claimed
Last Updated: Thursday 22nd January 2015, 09:26
The triple rollover Lotto jackpot that was won on Saturday 26 January has been claimed by a couple from Hemel Hempstead. Steve and Ida Smith are now £18,992,109 richer, but their win almost didn’t happen because Steve had originally forgotten to buy the additional Lucky Dip tickets that Ida had requested previously.
“We always buy a few lines for Lotto every Wednesday and Saturday but this time, because it was a Triple Rollover, Ida asked me to buy some extra Lucky Dips, just in case,” Steve said. “I’d completely forgotten until Ida reminded me when we were driving home from seeing family on Saturday afternoon. Luckily, I saw a shop ahead so we stopped off and bought three Lucky Dip tickets – and it was one of those that hit the jackpot!”
Despite buying their Lucky Dip tickets just a few hours before the draw took place, they didn’t watch the triple rollover live on television. In fact, they didn’t check their numbers until the next day.
“I was just getting Sunday lunch ready when Steve went to check our numbers on Teletext but none of them were winners,” Ida explained. “I still had the Lucky Dip tickets so I started checking those and saw we’d matched three numbers.”
But they hadn’t matched three numbers at all. “Ida said we’d matched three numbers but I had a look at the ticket and told her we’d matched four,” Steve said. “Then I looked again and realised we’d matched all six! We couldn’t believe it. We left the Teletext pages on for hours and just kept looking at it, worrying the numbers might change!”
The couple are now planning to treat their family before spending some of their fortune on a new home that has plenty of land for a paddock and stables. “I’ve always loved horses and it would be fantastic to have some land where we could keep them,” Steve said. “It’s amazing to have become multi-millionaires overnight but we are just looking forward to making our family comfortable.”