Dog leads woman to £100k lottery win

Pauline Dunne, a great grandmother from Underwood in Nottinghamshire, says her £100,000 scratchcard win was all down to her dog, Alfie, and that he'll be getting a few extra treats as a reward.

74-year-old Pauline was out taking Archie for his usual morning stroll, when she decided to pop into her local newsagents for a newspaper and a scratchcard. She took the card home, made a cup of tea, played the card, and discovered she was the lucky winner of £100,000.

She said it was still early in the morning, so her partner Stewart was still in bed, but she woke him because she needed someone else to check she had won. When she called her daughter Angela to share the good news, she initially didn't believe her, so she popped round for a look too.

She said: "I have to admit that I was shaking by this point. I didn't know if I was coming or going and Alfie was wondering what all the excitement was about."

Pauline will be treating her three children and seven grandchildren with some of the money, but said that Alfie will be getting his share of the treats too, after inspiring her to buy the scratchcard in the first place.

Dog

It's not the first time a dog has been credited with a major win. Last Christmas Bill Kelly, a 58-year-old from Florida, bought three scratch cards for his family as presents - including one for the dog. The dog's ticket won $3 million.

Meanwhile, in Alberta in Canada, just before Christmas, a couple took in two rescue dogs. They had to make a quick dash to the shops for supplies to help them clean up after the dogs destroyed a packet of scone mix, and they picked up a lottery ticket at the same time. The ticket won them $14.5 million.

Closer to home, in October last year, a couple's dog helped unearth the fact they were double lottery winners. Both Jane and Alan Slater from the Isle of Wight had bought tickets with the same numbers. They checked Alan's, and discovered he had won £149,089. However, it was only when their Labrador Ruby dislodged a catalogue on the back seat of the car that the second ticket fell out and they realised they'd won twice.

And a few years back, New Taipei City officials came up with a truly weird way for people's dogs to win them a lottery prize. For every scooped bag of dog mess handed into the authorities, people earned themselves a lottery ticket. In total 4,000 people collected 14,500 bags of dog poo in order to take part. One lucky winner took home a gold ingot worth £1,400, while 85 other people picked up smaller prizes.