Beating 'astounding' odds, Toronto senior held two of three winning tickets in $24M jackpot
With luck like hers, Mary Wollens should buy a lottery ticket — or two.
In what's being described as an unprecedented win in Lotto 6/49 history, 86-year-old Wollens held two of three winning tickets in the Sept. 30 draw, scoring her a windfall of $16 million.
The Etobicoke woman credited a prophetic dream for the windfall, saying she saw the winning numbers in her sleep.
"I was lying in bed and I had a dream about numbers so I wrote them down when I woke up," she told the Ontario Lottery and Gaming Corp.
"I should pay more attention to my dreams I guess," she said.
Wollens felt so confident that, the next day, she bought a second ticket playing the same numbers at the same Royal York Smoke store in Etobicoke.
"We don't think this has ever happened in recent history with such a large jackpot," said OLGC spokesman Teresa Roncon.
"The odds of that are astounding."
Wollens has been playing similar numbers since Lotto 6/49 began in 1982, typically playing between $5 and $10 per draw.
"I won $100 on the very first ticket I ever bought. I thought that it was such a good omen I even named my new tomato hybrid plants 6/49," she said while collecting her prize at the OLG Prize Centre.
The winning tickets this time were two $20 tickets.
Wollens made two separate trips to the prize office: when she told staff she had a second winning ticket at home, she was told to go home and bring back the other $8 million ducat. She deposited one cheque at the bank, went to the prize office, then made a second deposit shortly after.
"I bought my ticket on Thursday, felt really good about the numbers so I played them again on Friday ... guess it paid off," she said grinning.
The other winning ticket was sold in B.C.
Wollens has one son. She plans to splurge on herself, beginning with a haircut and a new wardrobe.
By purchasing the second ticket she increased her share of the jackpot by $4 million. How would it feel to be the other winner in B. C.? Good, but could/should have been $4 million better!
Maybe she will be one of those retirees who retire by continously taking cruises. I would do that if I won at her age. Annunities can be passed on to benficiaries, maybe her only son is a spendthrift so she chose annuities. I just love to speculate!!
Canada only offers tax-free cash not annuities. This doesn't seem that odd considering she had multiple tickets for the same drawing. If she had won several drawing than that would be interesting.
you are going to tell me that the same draw repeated twice? I got lost reading the news...Anyways That's great...What's incredible is that she dreamt it...Just prove that you have the most advanced Supercomputer in your head...
Did anyone see the show: how lottery changed my life on the discovery channel like a week ago?They were talking about lottery winners and how they live after they won the lottery...Did anyone see the young guy that said that he knew he was going to win the lottery because he dreamt the numbers..He play those same numbers he dreamt and he won the lottery and now he was on TV...This is the second time i heard someone dream their numbers play them and won the lottery: Millions too...
"Laura Simpson, from Great lakes, Illinois, deserves to be rich.." "...she is so rare..."
This is not without precedent.. remember the guy in Washington State played 10 lines of Mega (based on a system!) and won 5 of 6 on all 10? I remember also someone played the same #s twice, forgetting he played it already, and won 2 shares of a mega prize.. the story says the "Sept. 30 drawing" so it sounds like she played the numbers and then played them again for the same drawing maybe figuring if she got 5 of 6 or less it would pay double.. onetime it happened to me the clerk ran the Pick 5 ticket twice by mistake and it won 3 of 5 so I got 2x the 3 of 5 prize.
mam,m i would like to say that you are really lucky/ i hope you enjoy the rest of your life with your money ,have some fun, travel , hey come visit the bahamas , go to nassau at x-mas /new years and enjoy are parade we have with pasted costumes and cowbells and drums , or go see alaska, but enjoy it, mine is on the way , i guess and i wish all you other members luck , and keep playing, like the monkey said when he lost his tail, hey it aint long now
It was a hell of a win for sure , Another elderly lady just few days ago went to the local mall and got a $ 5 scratch off at the Shopper's Drugmart store and comes back later with the ticket asking the lady at the cash if her card won anything. LOL did it win anything only 1 million dollers right there....
Well played!
Annuities ? 86 years old lady.
By purchasing the second ticket she increased her share of the jackpot by $4 million. How would it feel to be the other winner in B. C.? Good, but could/should have been $4 million better!
As they say dreams can come true!!
Maybe she will be one of those retirees who retire by continously taking cruises. I would do that if I won at her age. Annunities can be passed on to benficiaries, maybe her only son is a spendthrift so she chose annuities. I just love to speculate!!
Canada only offers tax-free cash not annuities. This doesn't seem that odd considering she had multiple tickets for the same drawing. If she had won several drawing than that would be interesting.
Why would they call this "Astounding" ? All she did was play the same numbers twice.
you are going to tell me that the same draw repeated twice? I got lost reading the news...Anyways That's great...What's incredible is that she dreamt it...Just prove that you have the most advanced Supercomputer in your head...
Did anyone see the show: how lottery changed my life on the discovery channel like a week ago?They were talking about lottery winners and how they live after they won the lottery...Did anyone see the young guy that said that he knew he was going to win the lottery because he dreamt the numbers..He play those same numbers he dreamt and he won the lottery and now he was on TV...This is the second time i heard someone dream their numbers play them and won the lottery: Millions too...
"Laura Simpson, from Great lakes, Illinois, deserves to be rich.." "...she is so rare..."
This is not without precedent.. remember the guy in Washington State played 10 lines of Mega (based on a system!) and won 5 of 6 on all 10? I remember also someone played the same #s twice, forgetting he played it already, and won 2 shares of a mega prize.. the story says the "Sept. 30 drawing" so it sounds like she played the numbers and then played them again for the same drawing maybe figuring if she got 5 of 6 or less it would pay double.. onetime it happened to me the clerk ran the Pick 5 ticket twice by mistake and it won 3 of 5 so I got 2x the 3 of 5 prize.
What were her winning numbers?
mam,m i would like to say that you are really lucky/ i hope you enjoy the rest of your life with your money ,have some fun, travel , hey come visit the bahamas , go to nassau at x-mas /new years and enjoy are parade we have with pasted costumes and cowbells and drums , or go see alaska, but enjoy it, mine is on the way , i guess and i wish all you other members luck , and keep playing, like the monkey said when he lost his tail, hey it aint long now
It was a hell of a win for sure , Another elderly lady just few days ago went to the local mall and got a $ 5 scratch off at the Shopper's Drugmart store and comes back later with the ticket asking the lady at the cash if her card won anything. LOL did it win anything only 1 million dollers right there....