A stunned dad found a winning EuroMillions ticket he had forgotten about purchasing while tidying his car.
Actor Dion Davies had bought the ticket while starring in a local pantomime before Christmas. It was only when he was giving the vehicle a quick once over before it was professionally cleaned that he made the happy discovery stuck inside his sun visor.
The 47-year-old won £55,086, Wales Online reports.
READ MORE: Mum in limbo after National Lottery winnings go missing
Dion, who has also appeared in TV shows such as BBC’s Torchwood and Ruth Jones' Stella, said: "I needed to clean the car both inside and out because it was in a terrible state after lots of journeys.
"So I took it to get valeted, at which point the guy asked me to take all of my belongings out before he started, just in case he threw away something that was valuable. And I'm so glad he did."
After finding the ticket in the sun visor, Dion took it to the shop where he bought it. He added: "The chap there said I needed to call the number on the back of the final ticket because it was a winner."
Dion had managed to match all five numbers, each of which was based on family birthdays, plus one Lucky Star, in the EuroMillions draw which had taken place on Tuesday, December 20.
Unbeknown to him the ticket had been officially announced as unclaimed by The National Lottery in January. After finding the ticket, Dion went home to tell his wife Ifana before the pair called to make the claim.
The dad said: "Ifana had a friend round, so she stayed with us while we made the call. When the person at the Lottery said it was a winner, we all went, along with a neighbour, to get some lunch together, which of course included some glasses of fizz."
Dion believes if he had tried cleaning the car himself he may have not bothered checking his numbers at all.
He, Ifana and their 15-year-old son now plan to take a trip to Italy this year. After that sci-fi fan Dion also hopes to take his son to the annual international Comic-Con convention in San Diego, USA.
A spokesperson for Camelot UK Lotteries Limited said, "Thanks to National Lottery players, £30m is generated each week for National Lottery-funded projects. This money helps support everything from the local charity making a difference where you live through to helping our nations' athletes win medals at last summer’s Commonwealth Games.
"To date, £47bn has been raised for National Lottery Good Causes, with more than 670,000 individual grants awarded. Players can buy and check their tickets online by downloading the National Lottery app or at national-lottery.co.uk."
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