Group of process engineers wins huge lottery prize; thought the ticket was fake
A group of coworkers will have quite the story to tell at the next company get-together after winning a huge lottery prize.
After playing the lottery together for 10 years, five process engineers from southern Ontario have finally won big. Members include Mooretown residents Cody Harper and Joshua Roberts, Dennis Figueiredo from Wallaceburg, Adam Davidson from Petrolia, and Lee Coke from Sarnia.
During their shift, Figueiredo said that he and Coke were sitting together when he decided to check their ticket using the OLG App.
“I saw the Big Winner screen and turned to Lee and said, ‘Check this on your phone,'” said Figueiredo.
That’s when he realized that in addition to $2, they had won the Max Millions prize in the April 19, 2022, Lotto Max draw, bringing their total winnings to $1,000,002.
olg.ca
When it came to convincing his coworkers, Figueiredo had his work cut out for him.
“I immediately wondered how he managed to get a fake winning ticket,” Coke said. “Everything Dennis said to me felt exactly like what he would say to prank me.”
Figueiredo called Roberts who was at the grocery store at the time. However, like Coke, he didn’t believe him either.
“I heard him scan the ticket and heard the winning sound but told him to send me a screenshot of the win,” said Roberts. “Then I suddenly forgot what I was supposed to buy at the grocery store.”
Like the others, Harper also refused to believe the news. It was only Davidson who returned Figueiredo’s call with the most excitement out of the entire group.
Coworkers Dennis Figueiredo, Adam Davidson, Cody Harper, Joshua Roberts, and Lee Coke/OLG
“All these years of pulling pranks on these guys caught up with me in that moment,” said Figueiredo.
The group went to the OLG Prize Centre in Toronto to pick up their big cheque. Split between the five of them, each member is now $200,000.40 richer.
They all have different plans for their share of the windfall: Roberts will be purchasing that cottage that he’d already been working towards, Harper will be using his for home renovations and a truck, Figueiredo will be putting his into savings for his children’s future, while Coke will be transforming his basement into a rec room.
“I always dreamed of winning a ‘big one’ so I’ll have to scale down my plans a bit,” said Davidson, laughing.
The group still plans to continue playing the lottery in hopes of winning the “big one” someday.
The winning ticket was purchased at Taylor Convenience on Dufferin Avenue in Wallaceburg.