Dead Batteries Result in Major Canada Lottery Win
A quick visit to the convenience store on Christmas Eve, to buy batteries for toy that didn't work, resulted in one lucky London, Ont. woman becoming an instant millionaire twice over.
Kristin Hawley bought a toy for her son for Christmas, but when she opened it, she found that the batteries were dead. Not willing to disappoint the child, Hawley headed to the nearest convenience store to buy replacements.
While she was making her purchase, the retailer said to her: "Oh, do you want to buy a scratch ticket on Christmas Even? I hear they are lucky."
Hawley opted for the $20 Instant $200 Million$Extraordinaire ticket, a game that she regularly plays around once a month on payday.
The game is offered by the Ontario Lottery and Gaming (OLG), with a top $2 million prize.
The overall odds of winning any prize in this game are 1 in 3, and the object is to match symbols on the scratch grid to the two lucky numbers on the card.
Discovering the Scratch Card Lottery Win
Kristen Hawley didn't immediately realize that she was a lucky winner. She took the card home with her and dealt with more important issues ... like her son's toy.
It was only after she saw that the toy was working properly, did she scratch the ticket. It was then that she realized that she could be the winner of a cool $2 million.
"I thought I was crazy," she recalled. "I ran downstairs, showed my company the ticket, then I called my parents, hyperventilating."
Her parents who live out of town, who drive in and took her straight to the convenience store. It was there that Hawley discovered that she was $2 million richer.
"I was shaking and got hugged and grabbed and congratulated," she said. "Everybody was very nice and happy."
Plans for Lottery Jackpot
Kristin Hawley, who had to wait until Monday to claim her win from the OLG, said that she would not be "doing anything crazy" with her prize.
"Life was a little bit of a struggle before, so this is like a huge miracle for my family," she said.
"I have had the opportunity to be blessed and I want to do the right things."
Plans include a new house and car, as well as money for her son.
"The rest is invested," she said pragmatically.
