Witnesses who watched a woman roll up her lottery ticket and stick it back in her handbag after she was told it was worth more than $20 million, say they were more excited about the win than she was.
Ernie Dorman says he and his wife went to the Esso gas station near 50th Street and 98th Avenue to claim two scratch and win tickets Friday evening when a woman checked her lotto 6/49 ticket.
"There was a woman at the counter talking to the clerk and apparently she had a winning ticket and they thought it was $2 million and then my wife…looked at the ticket and it turned out to be $20 million, not $2 million," said Dorman.
Dorman says the woman who appeared to be in her late 20s or early 30s took the news very calmly. "We were more exited than she was," he said.
"She just rolled it up like an old shopping list and put it in her shoulder bag," said Dorman. "You'd think a security guard would pop out of the woodwork and would escort her home…because God only knows she is probably in a state of shock."
The clerk who validated the ticket, Sushil Garg, also took down the name and number of the winner. He says she is a regular customer who often buys lottery tickets at the gas station.
Garg said the woman was speechless when she realized she had won.
"She didn't have a word to say," said Garg. "People around her were more excited than her."
The woman told Dorman she was from Yellowknife, but didn't offer up much more information about herself.
Dorman says he hopes the woman signed the back of the ticket and get's the proper advice to claim her winnings.
As for Dorman's scratch and win tickets, his winnings were only $6, but he isn't complaining. He says he was happy to have seen a little piece of history.
"It was nice to come close to it, at least I touched it," said Dorman.
The woman's ticket was one of two winning tickets for the $41 million 6/49 jackpot, drawn on March 20.
The other $20.6 million ticket has been claimed by Bonnie Pierce of London, Ontario. Pierce, a part-time grocery clerk who made $12 an hour only had $80 left in her bank account when she won. The woman says her ex-husband left her financially distraught.
Gaming officials say the Edmonton winner has not yet claimed her prize.
"Sometimes people will know they have winner, but they are just not emotionally prepared to deal with it, they need to take some time to get their heads around it," said Andrea Marantz, Director of Corporate Affairs and Communications for the Western Canada Lottery Corporation.
Marantz says it is not uncommon for people to wait; in some cases winners have waited up until the last week to claim their money.
Winners have up to a year to collect their prize.
