June 30 (UPI) -- An Australian woman's thoughtful gesture for her husband earned the couple a lottery jackpot of nearly $350,000 -- but it was weeks before they realized it.
The Winthrop couple, who are in their 50s, told Lotterywest officials the husband is usually the one who buys lottery tickets each week.
"I don't normally buy them, my husband buys our tickets each week," the wife said. "I bought it for him out of love and then I simply forgot I had it."
The ticket, purchased from Winthrop Village News and Gifts, won a $346,329.66 jackpot in the May 30 Saturday Lotto drawing, but the couple said it was weeks before they remembered to check the ticket.
"If my husband had bought this ticket, we would have been here to claim the prize a lot sooner," the wife joked.
The husband said he has been buying lottery tickets for three decades, but has never won a prize worth more than $40.
"Thirty years and my wife beat me to it," he said. "I checked all of my tickets at the time, which were duds, but then my wife remembered she had one and now here we are in the Winners Room."