Dashboard drama: Darren’s £1Million ticket spends months in unlocked car
Darren Burfitt left a winning EuroMillions ticket in his unlocked car for four months, but luckily for the Swansea man no-one swiped it.
Friends repeatedly urged the 44-year-old to check the National Lottery tickets piling up in his car’s central console after an appeal went out to find a missing millionaire from the EuroMillions draw on 18th October 2024.
But it wasn’t until the golf club greenkeeper went to his battered Citroen DS4 to retrieve a half-eaten packet of crisps for his son, that he finally decided to scan his tickets on The National Lottery app. He was delighted to discover one of the tickets had won a £3.60 prize.
Darren said, “Another of the tickets was particularly creased, so I thought I would leave that one until the end. It was so crumpled it wouldn’t scan, so I had to bring up the draw details and read the results.
“I couldn’t quite believe it when I did …. I still cannot believe it now. I just kept looking at the date and then the matching EuroMillions Millionaire Maker code. I just could not comprehend what I was seeing!”
As he came to terms with becoming a National Lottery millionaire, Darren shivered as he realised anyone could have taken the winning ticket from his unlocked car. He said, “My car is honestly a shed on wheels held together with mud. It has almost no value, so I never bother to lock it. I dread to think what could have happened to that winning ticket!”
When Darren called his wife, Gemma, to break the amazing news, his voice was shaking so much she worried something had happened to one of their children. The 34-year-old teaching assistant took some convincing that the big win was real.
The couple, who have a six-year-old daughter as well as a four-year-old son, have set their sights on buying their first home together. Darren also wants a new pick-up truck to replace his Citroen.
Darren said, “I keep dreaming of a trip to see the Ashes in Australia, but a pick-up truck is first on the list as my car is literally falling apart. The kids will love the pick-up, and it will enable us to go on even more adventures as a family.”
Gemma added, “I just could never imagine having this much money – it is an unreal feeling. I have to keep pinching myself, it feels like a dream which I will wake up from!
“We love our lives and enjoy great caravan holidays, but this just takes things to another level and allows us to do even more as a family.”
28th March 2025
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