EDMONTON – A group of Edmonton-area Suncor workers has claimed the $20 million Lotto Max jackpot, leaving each of the 18 men more than one million dollars richer.
The maintenance workers have been buying tickets together for about five years, and some of them just couldn’t believe that they’d actually won this time.
Paul Furlong, who admits his eye sight is less than perfect, initially thought they had won $220,000.
“Divided up, I said ‘hey, that’s a few bucks for us.’ Then I went to the cashier and that’s when things got crazy.”
His co-worker Fred didn’t find out the news until he got back from vacation on Monday. “I thought they were trying to do a practical joke on me!”
Now he and his 17 co-workers will be trying to figure out how to spend their winnings. Some say they plan to pay off mortgages, and buy sports cars. Many plan to be back to work on Monday, though, after being given some time off.
“The boss came up to the shop where we were, he said ‘you guys got your coveralls on, you got your work boots on, we appreciate that and the work you do – but due to safety concerns, maybe you guys should just take the week off…without pay,” Furlong said with a laugh.
But seven of them will not be returning to work – opting, instead, for early retirement.
After 5 years at Suncor, 62 year-old Wayne Dupas is one of them.
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“You never believe this is going to happen to you,” he says, choking up. “Maybe I’m a little too emotional, but I didn’t have much of a pension, I lost a lot of my pension. But anyway..that’s all over with. I’m going to retire, we’re paying off our house…”
Dupas and his wife will also be organizing a suprising visit to his brother and sister overseas to give them the good news in person.
“This is going to be some awesome trip,” he says. “I tell you.”
In 2005, another group of 18 oil and gas workers from Camrose, Alta., won the country’s largest lottery jackpot at $54.2 million.
With files from The Canadian Press
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