"Are you ready to retire?" Canadian lottery winner asks wife after huge win
Ontarian retiree Rocco Dipierdomenico is celebrating after winning the top prize with the Instant Crossword Tripler scratch card.
The Amherstburg resident told OLG he’s been playing the lottery for two decades.
“I’ve always liked playing instant tickets to pass the time and socialize with friends,” he said when visiting the OLG Prize Centre in Toronto to collect his winnings.
Dipierdomenico purchased the winning ticket at Downtown Espresso Cafe on Dalhousie Street in Amherstburg.
He scratched the ticket to reveal he had won the top prize of $100,000, but when he went to check his ticket, the machine shut down.
“My body became still with shock,” he recalled. “I needed to double-check the ticket, then took a couple of minutes to process my win outside.”
Once the win was confirmed and he had regained himself, the 64-year-old called his wife to tell her the good news.
“Are you ready to retire?” he asked. His wife was overjoyed and she couldn’t believe their luck. Still shaking, Dipierdomenico returned home to tell his daughter.
“Are you kidding me?” she replied. That evening, they celebrated the $100,000 win together as a family.
Dipierdomenico says he plans to spend his windfall on a new car and furniture. “It feels fantastic,” he told OLG. “You always joke about winning, but when it happens, it’s unbelievable.”
Another Canadian to recently win big in the lottery was Sherry Wickes.
The revelation occurred while the Prince George, BC, resident was grocery shopping at her local superstore.
Wickes decided to check her lottery ticket and was shocked to find she had won a whopping $75,000 in the BC/49 lottery draw held on May 6.
Overwhelmed by the news, her initial reaction was disbelief. “My first thought was, ‘No way,'” she told BCLC.
Rather than immediately yelling out her incredible news to the world, Wickes decided to keep it a secret until she collected her prize.
“I kept the secret all day!” she revealed.
Wickes says she will spend her winnings on a well-deserved trip to sunny Puerto Vallarta in Mexico.
If you won the lottery, how would you spend the windfall? Let us know in the comments.
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