Two years on, Nelson Bay man discovers $100,000 Instant Scratch-Its win at bottom of old Christmas gift bag

The winning $5 Instant Scratch-Its ticket, gifted to Nelson Bay man two years ago, had been languishing in an old gift bag in the back a linen closet before being uncovered and the grand prize revealed this month.

"We've got lots of kids in the family so for the past few nights, we've been wrapping Christmas presents," the man, who did not wish to be identified, told The Lott.

"We'd run out of the good wrapping paper, and so my wife went into the cupboard and dug out old gift bags to use.

"This ticket was face down in the bottom of this one gift bag. We had no idea we even had it until then.

"The next morning, we were having breakfast, and my wife decided she'd scratch it while eating.

"She screamed, 'Oh my god, no way! We've won $100,000!'. I instantly looked at her and said, 'No, get off it. That can't be right!'. But sure enough, it was $100,000! It's incredible.

"We can't believe it's been sitting in our linen closet for two years! We've walked past that closet so many times, and we've cleaned it and had no idea there was $100,000 in it this whole time."

The ticket was purchased from Nelson Bay Newsagency in Magnus Street.

Newsagency owner Gary Ramponi said he was "thrilled" to have made one of his customers $100,000 richer.

"It's incredible. That's one of the best winning story I've ever heard," he said.

"You hear of people discovering wins years later, but it's crazy it's happened to one of our winners.

"Just yesterday a customer asked us what was the highest Instant Scratch-Its win we've had, and I said $1000. I'll be glad to tell them it's now $100,000.

"I've owned this outlet for 11 years and the biggest winning ticket we've sold is a $100,000 first prize in Lucky Lotteries Super Jackpot. This is the definitely the biggest scratchie win we've had."

The winner said he and his wife immediately called their family to share the news and to "try and find out who gave us this ticket".

"We have no idea who gifted it to us, so we can't thank them, sadly," he said. "We've decided we're going to buy a bunch of Instant Scratch-Its tickets and pop them into Christmas cards and give them to everyone. Hopefully, they have a big win, too."

As for what they will do with the money, the winner said air conditioning in the house was a priority.

"Hopefully, it'll be done in time for Christmas. It's certainly going to make for a fantastic festive season," he said.

"We could get a new car, maybe go on a holiday, who knows. We're still trying to get our heads around it. We celebrated last night with some Canadian Club and champagne flutes. It's fantastic."

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