In Calgary, three long-time friends and former colleagues are celebrating an incredible stroke of luck, each pocketing a staggering $16.6 million from a massive $50-million Lotto 6-49 win.
Carmen Austria, Gary Perkins and Catherine Wall — who have been buying tickets together for 17 years — hit the jackpot on Dec. 9, 2023.
“In the morning I got up, poured my hot coffee, picked up my phone and started checking the tickets,” said Austria. “It pops up and says: ‘This appears to be a winner of $50 million.’ I looked and I looked. I went up to my husband and I said: ‘Tell me I’m not reading this wrong.'”
Their winning ticket, a $10 investment, was purchased from the Scenic Acres Husky in Calgary.
Perkins recalled the moment he received a barrage of phone calls and texts from his friends, initially struggling to comprehend the news.
“It just didn’t register at first,” he admitted.
“It has been a persistent, consistent disbelief,” added Perkins. “This cannot have happened.”
All three newly-minted millionaires plan to share the money with family and have already spent some of the winnings on their own adventures.
“I wasted no time,” chuckled Perkins, recalling his visit to the Ford dealership the very next day.
For Wall, the windfall meant an immediate retirement announcement at work. Her husband was able to retire as well.
“We are still trying to get our heads around it,” Wall said. “We were always friends and we started buying lottery tickets as part of the social thing.”
“I couldn’t sleep,” said Austria, who went to Chile for five weeks after discovering she was a winner. “I floated.”
Their journey into the world of millionaires didn’t go unnoticed.
A friend’s gesture—a ‘Millionaires starter kit,’ complete with a bedazzled cup and a novelty money gun showering fake $100 bills—added a touch of humor to their newfound status.