A COUPLE who won a whopping £650,000 on the lottery have revealed how they missed out on the fortune.
Nareerat Phanphamorn and her husband, Kiat Liamsuwan, were just one call away from the riches but didn’t answer the phone.
The 37-year-old woman, from Thailand, explained how her husband had purchased the tickets online in September and they were awaiting their delivery.
The pair even went to a temple to pray for lucky numbers -performing a fortune-telling exercise with Chinese fortune sticks and receiving the same number, 20.
Nareerat had thought they would be dropped off before the lottery announcement on October 1 – but they never arrived.
Curious, the couple checked the numbers on thee tickets they had ordered and were alarmed to discover that all five tickets had won the 30 million baht jackpot.
They contacted the vendor to ask what had happened and were told their tickets couldn’t be delivered because Kiat had not picked up the phone when they called.
Kiat checked his missed calls history and found nothing, sparking curiosity over if the shop was deliberately keeping the jackpot.
But, as he had not yet paid for the tickets because he had requested cash on delivery, he was not sure if he was entitled to them.
The unfortunate couple have now lodged a complaint against the online lottery vendor after the infuriating loss.
Nareerat posted about her experience on Facebook, attaching a picture of the winning tickets and writing: “It is within my reach. Let’s see if I can reach it or not. The shop did not give me the tickets.”
The online lottery shop later announced via the same platform that the delivery driver did not take the tickets to Kiat because he did not answer his phone during the delivery time.
It added that as it was unable to collect the money the tickets were returned.
The vendor claimed that Kiat contacted the shop after the lottery result was announced and said that it has a rule that customers can only contact the shop before 4pm on the day of the lottery.
Thai lawyer, Nithikorn Kaewto, gave his opinion on the matter.
He said that the lottery tickets should belong to Kiat because the sale and payment contract had already been completed even if he had not yet paid for them.
The lawyer reportedly advised Kiat to sue the shop owner for embezzlement, according to Thaiger.
