Lottery Winners Nearly Lost Out Due to Power Cuts
The couple from Saskatchewan who won half of last week's $50 million Lotto Max lottery jackpot nearly didn't manage to buy their winning tickets.
According to Delores Durocher, she purchased the ticket an hour before the sales of the tickets closed and minutes after power was restored in the store due to public energy works.
"What happened was SaskPower had turned the power off because some power poles were knocked down," said Delores.
As a result, she almost didn't buy the ticket.
"We were waiting for the power to come on all afternoon," she said. "It finally came on at quarter to six. So I ran to the store and bought my tickets. And never expected it because there were so many people at the store buying their tickets at the same time because that's when the power came on. It's unbelievable."
Near mass hysteria spread across Canada last week as customers vied for the biggest jackpot in Lotto Max history - over $105 million in prize money in total.
After realizing that she was the winner, she called her husband who was out of town, who didn't believe her at first.
"He and my other boy went to the computer and checked the numbers," she recalled. "They called back and he said 'read back the numbers to me', so I read them back and he checked them, and still he had a hard time believing."
The couple travelled to Saskatoon this week to pick up their cheque, but refused to speak to the media.
They are now both officially retired and hope to help out their four children and go on vacation.
