A Burnaby, B.C. man has $25.9 million reasons to celebrate after winning a lottery jackpot.
On Tuesday, Marcello Battiston came forward to claim his Lotto Max winnings.
The 81-year-old purchased the lottery ticket by chance. He might not even have checked it, had his wife not heard that the winning ticket was purchased in Burnaby.
The clerk at the grocery store looked stunned when Battiston went to redeem the ticket, he said.
“I say, ‘What, I got $5,000?’ ‘No,’ he says, ‘You got the jackpot,’” Battiston told the crowd when he collected his winnings at the British Columbia Lottery Corporation headquarters.
Battiston, who is a father of two and grandfather of five, moved to British Columbia 60 years ago from Italy, where he plans to return on a trip. Battiston is retired now, but he spent nearly three decades working for B.C. Hydro.
“As soon as he came home he said, ‘Let’s celebrate, we won,’” his daughter, Angela Battiston, told CTV Vancouver. “I said, ‘You did not win, dad.’”
But of course, he did.
Now Angela says her father’s newfound wealth has not changed him and he still looks for bargains. “He never wants to spend money so I don’t imagine that will change,” she said with a smile. “It’s hard to break an 80-year habit.”
But he will spend some of his winnings. Battiston is planning a trip to Venice, but will stop in Hawaii first.
And his wife would like a new kitchen.
