Millionaires to keep low profile `

Press, 2 June 1984, Page 1

Millionaires to keep low profile `

Christchurch’s newest millionaires are keen to keep a low profile while they adjust to life with a large cheque. A reporter of “The Press” called at their Somerfield home last evening and was greeted at the door by the husband and wife who held the winning ticket in the $1 million lottery. The couple say they want no publicity. “Everyone who knows us knows we have won the money anyway.” The wife said she ’ had been annoyed to hear the tape-recording of her conversation with a local radio station announcer replayed during the day. She said she had not known when she queried the ticket number that the conversation was being taped. The couple said that adjusting to life with their new winnings was going to be hard enough without trying to do it in the glare of publicity. Somerfield lacked any obvious signs of opulence yesterday afternoon — the lottery winners were keeping so low a profile that their identities until last evening had eluded the nets of numerous news media snoops and most of their neighbours. The successful MM+2 syndicate is a young married couple with two children. They picked up their prize yesterday afternoon. A Lotteries Board official said he had signed the cheque and it was now in the winners’ hands. The woman telephoned a Christchurch radio station on Thursday evening to confirm the ticket number. She declined to give her name when asked by an announcer, but said she intended investing the money. She said that her husband owned a small business and that she had two children. The winning ticket, No. 246489, was bought from the Shirley Stationery and Gift Shop on May 7. Mr Neil Williams, who runs the shop with his wife, Angela, said yesterday that they had no idea who bought the ticket. It was not one of their regular customers, he said. “We were very thrilled to have sold it,” said Mr Williams. The winning ticket followed close behind another winning ticket bought at the shop. A ticket in the Golden Kiwi No. 157 lottery won $4OOO on the same day, he said. Mr and Mrs Williams will get a bonus for selling the winning ticket. Mr Williams said he did not know how much it would be but expected to hear next week. A spokesman for the Lotteries Board declined to say how much the bonus would be. In Somerfield the atmosphere was charged with talk of the lottery. Mrs Helen Cossar, of the Somerfield Mini Market, said “lots of people think it is us as we have our own business, the Mini Market, and are a young couple.” She said they had only one child. The area was alive with “lottery, lottery, lottery ...” she said. It was all very exciting. There had been a continuous stream of people, particularly reporters and radio, throughout the day. Although she had guessed

the identity of the winning family, Mrs Cossar remained silent. Across the road, Mr Albert Windsor, of the Somerfield Dairy, was facing a similar barrage of questions and people. “Everyone is trying to track them down,” he said. Some people had also thought it might have been his family, said Mr Windsor. “I have five children most of whom are married,” he said. Mr Windsor said his lottery ticket was fairly close to the winning number. Typical of the running conversation between shopkeeper and customer was: You haven’t won it have you? Obviously not, you wouldn’t be buying a packet of chewing gum. Young woman: No, I’d be buying the shop. Most Somerfield residents approached were delighted that the winners were a young couple with children. Somerfield was “a nice but obviously not a wealthy area,” said one middle-aged woman. She thought the money could be well used. Most residents said that they, too, would have liked to win. One elderly man said he was thrilled the lottery had

been won in the Somerfield area. “I only hope another one will be won here and come my way,” he said. The headmaster of Somerfield Primary School said he was delighted the lottery had been won in Somerfield. “It lets people know where Somerfield is,” he said. He had not heard a word about the lottery from the children, he said. As to the identity of the winners, if the children had been at his school, “we would have known by now,” he said. One young schoolgirl said she thought the $1 million win was “incredible because I don’t know where all the money is coming from.” Another boy said he felt angry that he did not win. “I didn’t even have a ticket,” he said. Along with the excitement of the win came more cautious talk about the size of the prize and its possible effect, the consensus being that the winners would have to be cautious and use the money sensibly. One young primary schoolgirl was adamant that she did not wish she had won it. “I would probably have done something foolish with it,” she said.