Hamilton woman wins $50M lottery after losing ticket
Posted December 3, 2013 2:01 pm.
This article is more than 5 years old.
A 55-year-old Hamilton woman who lost her lottery ticket has been told she’s the winner of an unclaimed $50 million Lotto Max ticket.
The Ontario Lottery and Gaming Corp. (OLG) said Tuesday it received more than 425 inquiries about the outstanding prize from Nov. 30, 2012, and after an investigation concluded Kathryn Jones was the owner of the lost ticket.
Not only did Jones not have the ticket – she wasn’t even one of the 425 people who inquired about the prize.
She had purchased the ticket at a Shoppers Drug Mart in Cambridge in November 2012, but lost it. Through their probe, investigators were led to her and informed her she was the rightful claimant, the OLG says.
“Through our exhaustive investigation we’re confident we’ve identified the winner of this prize,” OLG president and CEO Rod Phillips said Tuesday at a news conference.
The investigation included security footage of her buying the ticket, a credit card statement showing the purchase and interviews with Jones, among other things, the OLG said.
“I feel as though I’ve been struck by lightning twice,” she said at the news conference. “Because first, to win is pretty incredible but then to lose a ticket, which in my case isn’t that far of a stretch. … and then have the OLG find me and take the initiative to actually contact me is also pretty incredible.”
The engineer who has two university-aged children didn’t share plans on how she’d spend the jackpot. She said she’d wait until the new year to decide.
The OLG says she still has another step to go through before claiming her prize.
The prize will be held for 30 days in order for OLG to publicize the claim. If there are no additional valid claims on this prize during this period, it will be paid to Jones.
How would you spend your jackpot? Share your thoughts in the comments.
