"This can't be real": New Lotto Max winners can't believe their windfall

A pair of lottery winners in northern Alberta couldn’t believe their luck after finding out they had netted $500,000 in a Lotto Max draw.

Craig Murray and Shauna Budden took home half a million bucks after they matched all seven winning numbers for one of the Maxmillions prizes drawn for the October 18 Lotto Max draw.

They share the $1 million prize with another winning ticket sold in Ontario, with Murray discovering their win the morning after the draw.

“I was sitting in the parking lot at work enjoying my coffee,” he told the Western Canada Lottery Corporation (WCLC). “The car in front of me had its lights on, so I pulled down the visor to block the light, and then our tickets fell onto my lap.”

That’s when Murray decided to check his tickets, so he picked up his phone and scanned them using the Lotto Spot app.

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“This can’t be real,” Murray said to himself. He then took a photo and sent it to Budden.

“He called me and said, ’did you see the text I sent you?’” she recalled, noting that after she
looked at it, she echoed Murray. “I said, ‘This isn’t real… this can’t be real.’”

The pair purchased their winning ticket from PK’s Corner at 101 Riverstone Ridge a few
hours before the draw. They matched the winning Maxmillion numbers — 11, 12, 16, 33, 36, and 40.

The excited winners have a few plans for their windfall.

“We are going to invest some of it, pay off bills, and then we want to spend the rest on fun things,” Murray said.