I thought I hit it big with $68K jackpot but a lottery fluke made my winnings just $8

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 winn...