He thought he’d hit the jackpot, but it turns out he didn’t get jack squat.
Dean Smethurst went from rags to riches, then right back to rags again after mistakenly believing he had won over $68,000 (£50 000) via the UK National Lottery — operated by Camelot Group.
“I thought, ‘This is it. It’s for real. My numbers have come up,” Smethurst, 32, a supermarket manager, told SWNS, claiming he even “cracked open the bubbly” in celebration of what he assumed was a major pay day.
But those sweet sips of champagne quickly turned to gulps of sour grapes once he was updated with the heartbreaking reality that he’d only won a measly $8.16 (£6) in prizes.
The Brit purchased a lottery ticket on Saturday, May 4, and went to Tesco, a local grocery store where he’d previously worked, to check his numbers the following Wednesday, May 8.
“I spoke to the checkout girl and gave her the serial number of the ticket,” the millennial recalled.
“She inputted it and said, ‘Well done, you’ve won…three lucky dips,’” he said, referring to three separate sets of randomly generated lottery numbers.
“I asked her if she was sure, and then I asked to speak to a manager,” continued Smethurst, who received a resounding round of applause from Tesco staffers in earshot.
“The receipt said I’d won a prize, that the store would not be able to pay it out, and that I should contact Camelot immediately,” he said.
Unfortunately, the company’s phone lines had already closed for the evening. So, the hapless hopeful rushed to Camelot’s site and learned he had potentially won at least $68,000.
It was the working-class workhorse’s dream come true — but he didn’t realize a rude awakening was on the horizon.
“I didn’t sleep [that night] because I was so excited,” remembered Smethurst, who’s currently renovating his $135,000 abode. “My house is like a building site at the moment, so that was the first thing that I decided to spend my winnings on.”
“Then I decided to treat the family to a luxury holiday to Barbados,” the poor thing confessed, adding that he’d immediately bragged about the massive windfall to his friends and relatives.
However, amid all the mini mogul’s glee, he never stopped to check the lottery ticket numbers himself.
At 8:00 a.m. the following day, May 9, a buzzing Smethurst called Camelot, expecting a congratulatory salute. Instead, he got what felt like a boot to the butt.
Officials with the organization informed Smethurst that he’d checked his Saturday (May 4) ticket on Wednesday (May 8) during a “draw break” — a period of time when lottery ticket sales for a specific game are temporarily suspended while the draw for that game is taking place. During a break, lottery tickets can neither be purchased nor validated (checked for winnings).
Due to his ill-fated timing on Wednesday night, Smethurst’s ticket, which did earn him just over $8, prompted the receipt indicating that he had won and would need to contact Camelot for the payout.
The wannabe bigwig wrongfully assumed that the receipt’s message automatically meant he’d hit it big.
“When I had purchased the ticket, I had bought one for both the Saturday and Wednesday draws,” Smethurst explained. “As the Wednesday draw was in the process of taking place, it looks like this was an automated message instead, which would have been given for any win.”
“I was absolutely gutted,” said the dejected dude, who, rather than jet-setting off on a tropical vacation, is reluctantly headed “back to the drawing board now.”
A Camelot representative further expounded on Smethurst’s mix-up, saying, “In this instance, the player attempted to claim a prize during a ‘draw break,’ when National Lottery sales are suspended while a draw takes place.”
“The prize couldn’t be paid out at that time because the ticket was still entered into a ‘live’ draw,” said the spokesperson, “So a validation slip was printed instead.”
“To clarify, this generic slip is used for a number of scenarios — it’s not exclusively used for high-tier prizes.”
The unlucky lump did, however, catch a break that fateful Thursday. It was his day off from work, which meant he didn’t have to endure any ribbing from his colleagues — not right away, at least.
“I just watched television and my mum made me some comfort food,” said a crestfallen Smethurst, “which wasn’t much comfort.”
The gloomy guy’s melancholy notwithstanding, his not-so-profitable victory may have been a blessing in disguise.
Jay Sommers became the youngest winner of the Michigan state lottery back in 1988, pocketing an impressive $5 million at age 20. But he blew it all on NASCAR racing and is now a penniless mechanic.
Alyssa Mosley, a lottery winner based in the Big Apple, too, recently told The Post that the money didn’t automatically improve her life.
“Having it all is not the key to peace and happiness,” she warned.
“I do spend a lot of time alone,” added Mosely, admitting that ne’er-do-wells often attempt to manipulate her in hopes of getting their hands on her loot. “I’m not in a place where I need companionship so badly that I would ignore a red flag and be taken advantage of.”
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