Jeff Morton won $10 million on the August 14 LOTTO 6/49 draw, but he didn’t know it until just a couple of weeks ago. The Hamiota local walked around with the winning ticket sitting on a shelf at home for months before discovering his win.
“I don’t make special trips to the store to check my lottery tickets,” said the new winner. “So, I always end up checking a few of them at a time.”
“I heard on the radio not too long ago that there was an unclaimed $10 million-winning ticket purchased somewhere in Manitoba,” he continued. “But I never thought that I was that winner, so I didn’t rush to check my tickets.”
But in mid-December he was surprised to find out he was wrong about that. “I think I held it together pretty well in the store,” he laughed, recalling the clerk at the store counting out seven zeroes and a one on the lottery terminal screen. “All I could say in the store was, ‘I hope that number one is in the right spot!’”
“It didn’t really sink in until I got home and thought about it a bit more.”
Morton said he hasn’t made any big plans for his windfall yet, but he does have a couple smaller ideas to get him started. “I’m not really sure what I’m going to do with all of this,” he said. “I’m going to do some of the obvious things, like pay off my mortgage and any other bills… but as far as big, big plans go, I don’t have anything.”
“I think I’ll keep working for the next little bit,” he continued. “But just for a little while. I’d like to retire before I turn 65 next summer.”
Morton’s LOTTO 6/49 ticket was a Free Play ticket that he won on a previous draw. He redeemed his $10 million-winning ticket at Hamiota Super Thrifty Drug Mart Ltd., located at 38-4 Street East in Hamiota, and paid $1 to add the EXTRA to his ticket.
The $10 million-winning LOTTO 6/49 numbers were 3, 8, 11, 34, 40 and 47. Morton split the August 14th $20 million jackpot with another ticket purchased somewhere in Ontario.
