After a search that spanned throughout the course of nearly one year, a crab fisherman from New Brunswick has claimed the largest lottery prize ever won in Atlantic Canada — $64-million dollars — just 19 days before the ticket was set to expire.
Merel Chiasson of Bas-Caraquet, N.B., said he kept the ticket amongst a set of other unchecked tickets on his bedroom dresser for the past year, where he regularly checks them one month’s worth at a time before they’re set to expire.
When he took his tickets to a local retailer, he said he wasn’t sure if he had won $64,000 or $64 million.
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“There was a lot of zeros, so I wasn’t sure,” Chiasson said in a release from Atlantic Lottery, adding that once his partner looked at his ticket — she knew right away that he was the $64-million winner everyone was looking for.
The winning Lotto 6/49 ticket was purchased at Depanneur Pokemouche in the town of Pokemouche, N.B. The retailer will receive a one per cent seller’s prize from the winnings.
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