A resident of the coastal city of Ashdod, south of Tel Aviv, is the latest winner of the Israeli lottery, taking in five million shekels ($1,383,130) in winnings from a jackpot win following last Tuesday’s lotto.
The winner, a man in his 30s, picked up the winning ticket for 29 shekels ($8) last week. After writing his name on the ticket, the winner left it on his nightstand – where it remained for over a day, until the winner realized that he had won the jackpot.
“I heard that someone had won the first prize, and I understood that it wasn’t me. Nevertheless, I called my wife and asked her to check the ticket on the nightstand,” the winner said.
“I took the ticket and started to check it over,” said the winner’s wife. “I checked row after row, but I couldn’t find any [matching numbers]. I was about to give up when I saw in the last row that a surprise was waiting for me. I was in shock.”
When his wife called him to let him know the good news, the winner had to pull over his car.
“I stopped the car on the side of the road, I was so excited. What will we do with the money? In Israel, you have to work to get by. We’ll keep working hard, and enjoy this wonderful gift that we received. We’ll save the money in the bank, and talk with financial advisers about what investments to make.”