Pierre Richer was simply shopping for fixings for Thanksgiving dinner with his daughter when he snapped up a life-changing lottery ticket in Montreal.
The pair were at a Super C grocery store in the city’s LaSalle borough, unaware that their errand ahead of the long holiday weekend would lead to a whopping $50M jackpot.
If pie crust hadn’t been on sale, Richer said they wouldn’t have been at the lucky location.
“I wasn’t going to buy it this week, but I had two free tickets in my pockets,” Richer said. “I went to play them and I asked for two Lotto Max at the counter and that’s what happened. It cost me $10.”
The Lotto Max draw took place last Friday, but it was Richer’s wife and daughter who stumbled upon their windfall when checking out his numbers the next day. Upon realizing her dad had the winning ticket, his daughter screamed so loud apparently the family was convinced she had seen a spider.
But Richer himself barely reacted to his impressive, multi-million-dollar win. When he was called into the room, he basically said “OK” and walked right back out.
“I was a little happy,” Richer said. “But, you know, I just left the room and that was it.”
Speaking to reporters on Thursday, he said he hasn’t changed at all — but he grinned as the confetti rained down over him and he held up a massive cheque.
“I feel the same,” Richer said. “Nothing has changed.”
As a proud working man with a career spanning over 40 years, he was back on the job at 4:30 a.m. on Thanksgiving Monday. Richer, who is in his 60s, works for a catering company as a driver and head of the shipping department. The pay isn’t great, he added, but he’s a loyal employee.
The Montreal resident will take some time off to celebrate his newfound fortune, but he says doesn’t plan on retiring just yet. Richer said he’ll give it “at least a month and then I’ll see what I’m going to do.”
Richer says he plans to live out another dream thanks to his lottery winnings: buying a home on the outskirts of the city. He looks forward to mowing his future lawn.
Aside from that, the modest multi-millionaire says his family is happy and he said their lives will be easier.
“Our plan is to buy a new house and a new car and that’s basically it,” Richer said, adding his family will take a trip but that he doesn’t really go on vacation.
“I have no real plans.”
— with files from Global’s Dan Spector
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