Bangkok (dpa) – A family of garbage collectors in western Thailand have won 30 million baht (913,240 dollars) in a lottery by using their dead mother’s coffin number, local media reported on Friday.
Pranee Deeluan, 39, Sopee Deeluan 53, Boonruen Yadmak, 31 and their 52-year-old sibling identified only as Kant bought lottery tickets on
Thursday on their way back from a Buddhist funeral rite for their mother who died last week, local newspaper Khaosod reported.
“My mother once said that when she died, all of us would be rich,” Pranee said. “I didn’t expect at all that this day would come.”
According to Pranee, an undertaker at the temple pointed out to her that she should buy lottery tickets with the coffin’s number – 391 – because it was marked unusually in red.
Superstition is rife in rural Thailand, where lots of things can be interpreted as signs for winning lottery numbers.
But the new millionaires said they would not quit their family’s 20-year practice of garbage collecting in Ratchaburi, 100 kilometres west of Thailand’s capital Bangkok.
“We will use the money to pay off all our debts, and we will keep the rest for our children’s tuition fees,” Pranee said.
