‘She’s having a nervous breakdown’: Telstra outage blocks life-changing $15.5m call

A former Australian servicewoman missed out on knowing she had won a life-changing property portfolio after calls and messages failed to get through during last week’s nationwide Telstra outage.

The network failure impacted mobile calls and data services, caused major public transport delays, and took down a payment system used by about 80,000 businesses last Wednesday. The telco later identified a software defect as the source of the issue.

One of the mobile numbers affected belonged to Riley, a mother and former Navy member from Geelong in Victoria.

Ben Sawkins, general manager of lotteries for the Dream Home Art Union, had attempted to call Riley three times last Wednesday to let her know she had won four luxury apartments on the Sunshine Coast worth a total of $15.5 million.

After calls failed, Sawkins sent her a text message and email. Riley never received the text message and, while the email landed in her inbox, she assumed it was a scam.

She eventually returned Sawkins’ call using her neighbour’s phone.

“I’ve got to be honest with you, she’s having a nervous breakdown in case this is fake,” the neighbour told Sawkins in the recorded phone call.

“She’s nearly being sick, so could you clarify [if she’s won] pretty soon?”

Sawkins proceeded to tell Riley the phone call was legitimate and that she had won $30,000 in gold. It was only the start of the good news.

“I’ve got tears,” Riley said nervously.

He then suggested she and the neighbour take a seat, before revealing Riley had won an entire luxury apartment block on the Sunshine Coast.

“No way, it can’t be true. She’s too ordinary,” the neighbour joked.

Sawkins replied: “The best thing about this is ordinary people win and you’re one of them.”

Fighting back tears, Riley was in disbelief.

“Is this for real?” she asked. “I can’t believe this is happening to me.”

Sawkins then confirmed Riley had also won $280,000 in gold – which included the $30,000 – and more than $500,000 in furniture inside the apartment complex.

“The children are trying to get into the housing market, and it’s impossible,” Riley said.

“I told the bank manager the other day we will have to hold off for the moment because they still haven’t got quite enough money.”

She said the win would help ease the family’s financial stress, particularly for her husband who works fly-in, fly-out (FIFO) shifts to help provide for them.

“You just don’t know how much you’ve changed our life,” she said.

As for what she plans to do with the sudden windfall, Riley said she just wanted “to be an ordinary person”.

“I just want to be kind to people and do nice things,” she said. 

“I have started doing a lot of craft and I want to create things for people to help with mental health. This could just be the start of it all.”

Dream Home Art Union has supported veterans with its prize homes for 70 years. Its next prize is a $14.4 million Gold Coast penthouse.

Proceeds from tickets sold go towards supporting Australian veterans and their families through RSL Queensland.