Could a 49 million lotto ticket have been accidentally burned

The owner of a shop which sold a €4.9 million winning lottery ticket has said he hopes rumours of a man inadvertently burning the winning slip are untrue.

Crinkill Superstore sold the winning €4 quick pick ticket on Monday, November 17. The winning numbers for the midweek lotto on Wednesday, November 19, were 9, 11, 12 ,29, 31 and 35. The bonus number was 1.  

Tom Geraghty owns Crinkill Superstore near Birr which sold one local resident a €4 quick pick ticket and a Euromillions ticket on that Monday. 

“One of the customers told me that a friend of his bought two tickets on Monday, one for the lotto on Wednesday and one for the Euromillions on Tuesday,” Mr Geraghty explained. “It was alleged that he checked the Euromillions ticket on Wednesday morning and he threw it away, he threw it in the fire,” Mr Geraghty said.

He was told the man, who lives locally, may have inadvertently thrown the National Lottery ticket into the fire instead of the worthless Euromillions ticket. “It would be an awful tragedy if that happened,” Mr Geraghty remarked.

“I am rather surprised that it hasn’t been collected yet. I have been inundated with people ringing up to see if it has been collected yet,” he revealed. “Hopefully, please god, it will be collected soon,” he added.

Mr Geraghty thanked the local community and members of the public who had congratulated him on selling the ticket.  “There is a huge amount of goodwill for the shop, people are very generous in their congratulations,” he said.     

A spokeswoman for the National Lottery confirmed that no-one had yet come forward to claim the €4,904,904 jackpot on Thursday morning. The owner of the winning ticket has 90 days from the date of the draw to collect the prize.