Life can be unpredictable, sometimes in a good way. Such was the case with a man named Jeff Etherington, a father to five and grandfather to eight. He presently works as a machine setter in the automotive industry. The 65-year-old man from Harlow in Essex, England, bought a lottery Thunderball lucky dip ticket, just after he attended his meeting for knee replacement. Luck favoured Jeff, as that ticket turned out to be his jackpot of Rs 52,72,10,255. As told to Mirror.co.uk, Jeff plans to continue working and will tie the nuptial knot with his fiancee Kim Read, 60.
Jeff is on cloud nine at the moment and told Mirror.co.uk that he believed in winning something big one day. “It’s taken 28 years but here we are, I’m heading into retirement with £500,000 extra to my name. I can’t help thinking its fate, had I not swapped shifts for that hospital appointment, I wouldn’t have been buying my lucky dip ticket at that exact moment and some other lucky person might now be celebrating instead.” The winning lottery numbers were 11, 13, 15, 23, 34, 39 and the bonus number is 09.
A similar incident was reported in Punjab as well, where an 88-year-old man named Mahant Dwarka Dass had won the Lohri Makar Sankranti Bumper Lottery. He had won a bumper amount of Rs 5 crore after purchasing lottery tickets for over 35 years. In a conversation with news agency ANI, Mahant said, “I am feeling happy. I have been buying lottery tickets for the past 35-40 years."
Mahant, who looks after a local dera completed his statement, saying that he is going to divide the winning amount among his two sons and Dera. His son Narender Kumar Sharma said that his father had given money to his grandson for buying the lottery ticket and he won. Narender concluded the interview, saying his family is happy. There is an interesting twist to this story. Mahant will not receive the entire amount of Rs 5 crore as it will be subjected to tax deduction. As informed by the Assistant Lottery Director, there will be a 30% tax deduction from the lottery prize.
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