A teenage shop assistant has spoken of the moment he ripped up a Mearns couple’s £58m winning EuroMillions ticket.
Fred and Lesley Higgins from Laurencekirk matched all the numbers in the July 10 draw.
Mr Higgins took his ticket to his local Scotmid where Sean Grant ripped it up and threw it in the bin after thinking it wasn’t a winner.
The machine then told the 18-year-old former Mearns Academy pupil to contact Camelot because the winning sum was more than the store could pay out – so he quickly retrieved it from the bin.
Sean said both he and Mr Higgins stood “clueless” because at the time they still had no idea how much he’d won.
He said he only heard on Wednesday night that the couple had won £58m and said he was delighted at their success.
“I have seen Fred a couple of times in the store,” said Sean.
“He gave me two tickets – the first one I put through the machine and it wasn’t a winner so I binned that.
Shop assistant Sean Grant has told how he ripped up a Mearns couple's winning £58m lottery ticket. pic.twitter.com/DYCMaet00D
— Graeme Strachan (@C_GStrachan) August 2, 2018
“The second one came through as the winning noise but I automatically just ripped it thinking it would be £10 or £20.
“I came back to the lottery machine which said it was in excess of what we could pay so I had to return the ticket to Mr Higgins and the player receipt.
“I apologised to Mr Higgins and gave him the ticket and the player receipt and said to him that he would have to phone Camelot because I thought he’d won a decent amount.”
Sean said the phone call telling him Mr Higgins had won the life-changing sum was “just amazing” – admitting that he didn’t think he’d ever paid out £50 or £100, never mind £58m.
Sean has just left school and said his family can’t believe that he sold a £58m winning ticket.
He said he doesn’t play the lottery himself but did say that the first thing that he would do if he did win £58m would be to buy a new car.
Sean said he was still struggling to come to terms with his “15 minutes of fame”.
