British Man Andrew Clark Finds $86M Lottery Ticket In His Car After Family Hounded Him To Check His Ticket
A man won one of the largest jackpots in British history, and he almost didn’t bother to claim his prize. The ticket was buried in a pile of papers in Andrew Clark’s van for weeks before he finally decided to check and see if he was the big winner, as reported by the New York Post.
Clark, who’s from Boston, Lincolnshire, United Kingdom, ultimately ended up having the $86 million (£76 million) EuroMillions jackpot, and he only decided to check after being pushed by his family when they heard that big prize had gone unclaimed. He sat on the winning ticket for a little over six weeks before giving in and looking to see if he was the winner.
When asked about checking the ticket, he told Sky News the following.
“Trisha kept telling me to check the tickets, and her niece Louise, who I was building an extension for, was also in on it once she’d heard about the unclaimed prize in the news.
“It was something of a standing joke that I had all these tickets while there was a local prize outstanding, so for weeks they were on at me to check,” he continued.
Apparently, the winning ticket wasn’t the only one in his car. Clark had a whole bundle of tickets wrapped up, so he had to do a little bit of digging to find the one that would make him $86 million richer.
“I finally gave in, got the bundle out of the van and started to work my way through them, methodically from the oldest to the most recent, starting with Lotto, before moving onto my EuroMillions tickets,” he explained.
As one might expect, he’s quite happy that his family nagged him to check on his lottery ticket.
“For all our family, I’m very pleased that Trisha and Louise nagged me to check those tickets!”
He summed up just about everyone’s thoughts on the situation pretty succinctly.
“It almost feels like some magical Christmas story, the man who nearly lost £76 million!”
Clark’s partner, Trisha Fairhurst, also talked about what happened when he found out he’d won.
“I’d just got back from work and was settling in for a quiet evening when Andrew called and said, ‘You know that £76M, well I’ve just won it.'”
Andrew Clark said he only checked his bundle of lottery tickets when his partner nagged him https://t.co/NM7Z168h6G
— The Times and The Sunday Times (@thetimes) December 21, 2018
The biggest jackpot ever offered by EuroMillions was €190 (£171 million, $216 million). The massive jackpot has been won on three occasions since the lottery started in 2004. While Clark’s win isn’t the biggest, it’s definitely up there. The program is actually capped at that €190 million prize, with any amount higher rolling down to the lower tiers of winners.
Clark’s win is the 12th biggest win ever in the U.K.
