If you think you're having a bad day, spare a thought for Nathan Moody, who was told he'd won big on the lottery, only to find out hours later he'd actually only won a free lucky dip.
Twenty-five-year-old Nathan had bought a lucky dip for Saturday's Lotto draw, shortly after the draw, he went back to the shop and handed over his ticket to be checked, GazetteLive reports.
The ticket was scanned and the machine let a beep, Nathan was then told that he had won a prize, but that the prize was too big to be paid to him on the spot.
Naturally, Nathan had already started spending his winnings in his head; dreaming of a holiday abroad with his partner and two kids.
He told the GazetteLive: "It made a beeping noise to say I had won. The shop assistant was quite shocked.
"The machine was telling him it's a big pay out and I should contact Lottery HQ.
"He gave me a pen and told me to write my name on the back of the ticket. Everyone in the shop was over the moon for me.
"I waited up until about 11pm to check the lottery app on my phone.
"When I checked it, it told me I had a free lucky dip."
Still unsure if he'd won thousands or a lucky dip, Nathan went back the shop the next day, to check and was told that he had only won the lucky dip.
"I was absolutely gutted," he told the news outlet. "I couldn't speak, I was devastated.
"I knew it wasn't the £1m raffle but I assumed it was one of the 10 prizes of £20,000.
"I was talking to my partner about getting everything sorted and paying my bills.
"We could have got a nice little car, helped my mum and dad out."
Getting to the bottom of the mix-up, Nathan eventually found out that he had his ticket during what is known as a 'draw break' - a short period straight after a draw when Camelot, which runs the Lotto, is still working out prizes.
A spokesperson from Camelot told the GazetteLive that the ticket had been scanned but as it was during the 'draw break', the terminal would have displayed a message which said: "Results not in. Return ticket to player and tell player to check another day."
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