Dubai: Looking down at his raffle ticket which read ‘Winner takes all — 500,000 dirhams,” Mohammad Al Noman, 74, said his birthday present came early this year.
The first winner of the Dubai Shopping Festival (DSF) raffle draw was left speechless when he received a call telling him he’s the winner of two Infiniti top models, QX60 and G25, and a cash prize of Dh100,000.
The Omani grandfather of 11 thought he was having a bad day when he lost his ATM card while withdrawing cash at a gas station, until his luck turned around. Returning to the station to collect his missing card, which was found by a police officer, Al Noman was persuaded to buy a Dh200 raffle ticket for the DSF draw.
“I told the attendant at the gas station that I’ve never won in a raffle before, but she insisted I would be lucky this time,” Al Noman told Gulf News.
Trying his luck in a raffle for the first time in years, Al Noman said he bought a ticket which he later tossed into a drawer upon reaching home.
Disbelief
“When I got the call telling me I am the winner… at first I thought it was a scam, but after I looked at my ticket and confirmed it, I felt an element of disbelief,” he said.
After receiving the call from Dubai Festivals and Retail Establishment, an agency of the Department of Tourism and Commerce Marketing, and the organisers of DSF, congratulating him on his grand win at the Infiniti Mega Raffle, Al Noman collected his prize at the Global Village raffle prize announcement.
A Dubai resident of eight years, Al Noman said he plans to sell the two Infiniti models and add the money to the Dh100,000 cash prize to buy the house that he currently lives in.
Al Noman, who is a hotel manager, is a father of four. “It’s a beautiful occasion as the news of me winning the raffle has come a few days before my birthday on January 17,” he added.
