I won lottery THREE times but nearly walked away with nothing because I thought I ‘forgot to pay’
A STUNNED lottery winner nearly walked away with nothing after he claims he thought he’d forgot to pay.
David Crowder, an ex-cop and army veteran from Perthshire, won a bumper £1.02m prize after buying three tickets for the People’s Postcode Lottery.
David, 62, is now dreaming up a golf trip to the Masters Tournament in the US, a long voyage to Australia to visit long-lost relatives and donating to charity.
But it nearly wasn’t to be.
When David missed a call from People’s Postcode Lottery on Tuesday, he thought it might’ve been a scam – and Googled the number assuming he forgot to pay the monthly £12 fee to be in the running.
As it turned out, David had paid and players in the PH2 9 postcode in Perthshire struck gold with a £10.2m pot, the biggest ever in Scotland.
“I got a missed call on Tuesday and decided to ignore it because I thought it was a scam,” David told The Courier.
“I googled the number and noticed it was the Postcode Lottery, I thought I may have forgotten to pay.
“They told me that I was a winner. They went through some details and told me that I had won at least £5,000.
“I had three tickets so knew I was going to win at least £15,000.”
David’s three winning tickets were actually worth a whopping £340,000 each.
“They asked me if I wanted to know how much I had won and passed over the first bit of paper to see I had won £340,000.
“They then said that I wasn’t finished and passed me another one, and then a third one.
“I was speechless, my legs were like jelly. I was in shock, I’m a council guy from Letham, these things don’t happen to me.”
David said the winnings would be “generationally life-changing” with daughter Amie, 37, and son Dale, 32, set to benefit.
“I’ll share it with my family because that’s what I’ve always done,” he said.
People's Postcode Lottery: how to play
To enter, you’ll need to subscribe to People’s Postcode Lottery for £12 per month.
You’ll then be automatically entered into all draws with your chosen postcode.
If your postcode is drawn and you hold the right ticket, you win.
A third of winnings automatically goes to charity, with the organisation saying it has led to £1.3bn raised so far.