ANYONE who finds a Lotto ticket on Croaghaun Mountain in Achill Island in the next few days could end up a millionaire. That's if the story being told to the local postmaster turns out to be true.
The story goes like this. Last Tuesday evening, just before closing time, a young Galway man bought a "quick pick" lottery ticket - where the computer picks the numbers for you - at the post office in Keel, near the foot of the mountain.
The following day he and his American girlfriend went walking on the 2,000 ft peak, whose cliffs locals claim to be the highest in western Europe. They came back that night to stay in the Wayfarer hostel in Keel.
Some time on Thursday morning, the young man must have checked the Lotto results in the daily paper. Presumably he let out a whoop of delight when he recognised the winning numbers, followed quickly by an ice cold stab of despair in his stomach as the appalling realisation hit him that he had mislaid his ticket.
His passport to a lifetime of riches was lost somewhere in the endless mists and rocks and bogs of Croaghaun Mountain or, even more horribly, had been blown into the even more boundless void of the Atlantic Ocean.
Since last Thursday Mr Michael O'Malley, the postmaster at Keel, has been pestered with calls from a young man with a Galway accent who will not give his name but wants to know only one thing: has anyone brought in the missing ticket to claim the promised millions?
The National Lottery has confirmed that the winning ticket - worth £2,083,000 - was sold last Tuesday evening at Keel post office. The £5,000 due to Mr O'Malley as the seller of the ticket will be on its way to him in the next few days.
The unknown winner has 90 days to claim his or her winnings. The National Lottery advises everyone who buys a ticket immediately to sign it on the back. But the young man who has been desperately phoning Keel post office has said nothing about the ticket being signed.
The National Lottery will say only that once a winning ticket is signed, it is a "bearer document" which can be exchanged for cash by the signatory.
Mrs Sorcha Daly of the Wayfarer hostel remembers a young Galway man with an American girlfriend who told her on Thursday morning that "there was a lot of excitement over at the post office" about a winning lottery ticket worth over £2 million. She does not remember him being particularly excited himself.
On Saturday he came back to the hostel asking if he could search it for his girlfriend's lost ring. She told him the rubbish had just been removed by the council lorry. She does not think he went back up Croaghaun.
"There are as many rumours floating around Keel at the moment as there are waves in the beautiful bay in front of us," said Mr O'Malley yesterday.
Over in Lavelle's pub in Achill Sound, the owner, Mr Tom Cafferky, reported locals as saying that the young man and his girlfriend went up the mountain and made love. In heat of the moment the ticket fell out of his trousers pocket.