Motorway worker told 'mate, you probably need to go home' after $19m Lotto win

Wednesday, 6 December 2017

The Warkworth winner had the winning ticket in his pocket all weekend.

The Warkworth man who won $19.1 million on Powerball last month turned up for work on a major motorway project after the win - and was told to go home.

'I play Lotto religiously, but it wasn't me,' one of the workers on the $710 million 18.5km Puhoi-Warkworth project told Seven Sharp.

A Lotto winner went back to work on the Puhoi to Warkworth motorway extension, currently under way and working towards a 2021 completion date.

'But we were fortunate to have one of our people on the project, and whammo, he won the winning ticket.

'He turned up for the work, and I think the rest of the team said, 'mate, you probably need to go home',' the worker said.

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* Local workers hard to find for northern motorway project**

The winner would seem unlikely to be among the 500 workers expected at the peak of the project, which is due to be finished by the end of 2021.

The former project worker shared a $38m prize with a Wairarapa family syndicate.

The Warkworth winner, who has remained anonymous, previously told of how he drove around with the winning ticket in his pocket all weekend after the Wednesday draw, without realising he was a winner.

He checked the ticket when he went to get some groceries from his local supermarket on the Monday night. The woman behind the counter's 'eyes were wide and she had a massive grin on her face', he said.

After a swim to clear his head he went home and said to his partner: 'Did you hear someone in Warkworth has won $19 million?''

'When she turned to look at me I said 'and you're looking at him'.'