Calgary’s newest multi-millionaires are planning on purchasing a new home and taking a family vacation thanks to a winning $30-million Lotto Max ticket.
Darrell Szczerba and his wife Laurie said they couldn’t believe the news when they learned they had won.
“I had been at Walmart and shopped and bought some groceries. When I realized [my husband] was telling me the truth, I just kind of dropped the bags and started jumping up and down and hugging him and screaming,” Laurie told reporters at a news conference Friday.
“And the bags just kind of stayed there until the next day.”
Laurie’s husband, Darrell, said he was waiting to get a tattoo when he decided to check the numbers for the couple’s Feb. 15 ticket.
Szczerba said he went across the street to a convenience store and after he realized they had won, he immediately cancelled his tattoo appointment.
“My first thought was, ‘I’ve got to drive home,’” Szczerba told The Canadian Press. “I couldn’t sit there with a winning ticket in my pocket.”
In addition to taking a family vacation and buying a new home, Szczerba said they have already quit their jobs and plan on purchasing a limited edition truck.
The couple’s lottery win is the biggest Lotto Max jackpot ever in Calgary. In 2005, the winning ticket was just over $12.5-million, said Michelle Hynes-Dawson, spokesperson for the Western Canada Lottery Corporation.
With a report from CTV Calgary’s Reg Hampton and a file from The Canadian Press
