London, Dec 9 : A New Zealand man cannot stop thanking his wife, for her constant nagging compelled him to buy a lottery ticket that has won him a whopping
2.8 million pounds first prize.

In fact, the man had almost missed his lucky chance as he bought his ticket just two minutes before ticket sales closed on December 6.

"My wife had been nagging me all week to get a ticket, so I when saw the Lotto sign ... I sprinted in to get the ticket before they closed. I must have been their last customer of the night," the Telegraph quoted the man, who asked not to be named, as saying.

He disclosed that the young couple had had a "rough" couple of years, reduced to one income after having children.

"I have never been so glad to listen to my wife''s nagging," he said.

In fact, it was his wife's request for a barbecued sausage that made him go out and check the winning ticket.

So, when he went to buy the sausage without enough money in his pocket, he decided to check his the lottery ticket in case he''d won a small prize.

"I could not believe it when they said I was actually the big winner," he said.

When he showed the printout to his wife, she initially thought they had won 7,700 New Zealand dollars, but it turned out to be 7.7 million NZ dollars.

"When she realized how much it really was, she fell to the floor, and then said: ''but all I wanted was a sausage,"'' said the man. (ANI)