A 79-year-old retired train worker believed he had won $40,000 in a LOTTO MAX draw on Feb. 21, only to discover the ticket was actually for $40 million.
$40 Million Victory
Bernard White from Oshawa mentioned that he has been purchasing lottery tickets weekly for many years – one for him and one for his daughter.
“Before I go to bed, I always tell her to pick one. This time, she picked the wrong one,” White said, with a smirk.
White mentioned that at his home, his daughter consistently rises early to get work done. The morning following the LOTTO MAX draw, while the sun was still absent, his daughter knocked on his bedroom door, informing him that he had won $40,000 with his lottery ticket.
“That’s great,” he told her. “Now we can pay off both our cars.”
Joker
White mentioned that he lowered his head onto the pillow again but was too thrilled to drift off to sleep.
“Five or ten minutes later, there was another knock on the door and my daughter said, ‘Um…Dad, I think you won $40 million!’ Now I really wanted to jump out of bed, but I couldn’t because I sleep in the nude,” he said. “I would’ve hit the ceiling if I’d had underwear on!”
Amazingly, in spite of all the excitement, his daughter still went to work, though for clear reasons she returned home early.
“When my daughter came home, we both went to the store where I’d bought the ticket,” he said. “We checked it at the lottery terminal, and it lit up like a Christmas tree.”
$3,000 Audio System
Agitated, White mentioned that he got into his car, intending to go for a long drive. He wished to go inform a long-time companion about the news.
"I told her I’d won $40 thousand –I couldn’t get that thought out of my mind,” he said. “She didn’t believe me because I pull pranks on her all the time. I then told her I’d won $40 million and even showed her the ticket, but it didn’t convince her right away. In fact, I was having a difficult time even saying, ‘I won $40 million.’ It felt so surreal.”
White mentioned that with his winnings, he plans to purchase a new fishing rod and a pair of $3,000 speakers for his music. That results in approximately $39,996,800. He comes from a large family with several siblings, so he will be assisting those individuals. He'll embark on a cruise around Newfoundland, the place of his birth. And he wishes to assist certain health organizations that are important to him.
However, he will be assisting his daughter as well.
“My daughter means a lot to me because, when my late wife and I had her, she was the only child we could have,” he said. “She’s going to be well taken care of.”
