It’s been a lucky spring for a Winnipeg senior.
Louise Berard, 82, bought a lottery ticket in early March, and accidentally left it — inside her change purse — at a St. Boniface post office.
The purse sat in the post office’s lost and found for six weeks, until Andre Philippot, an employee who was cleaning up, decided to check the ticket.
When Philippot realized it was a $100,000 winner, he brought it to his postal colleagues and they worked with the Western Canada Lottery Corporation (WCLC) to find the rightful owner.
“This belonged to somebody, and that somebody probably has a family and this could make a real difference to them,” said Phillipot.
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“A lot of the time, our customers become our friends, and we try to go above and beyond for them.”
When Berard next showed up at the post office, they asked her if she’d recently lost her change purse. She was able to accurately identify the purse, and was directed to the WCLC, who had some long-awaited good news.
“I started to cry. I couldn’t believe it,” said Berard.
“I’m going to get my little house back in shape. It needs painting, and I don’t feel like doing it myself — I’m 82 years old!”
Berard told 680 CJOB she wasn’t sure where she had lost the change purse, as she’d visited two other businesses after stopping at the post office.
She was more upset about losing the purse than she was the ticket inside — not knowing, of course, that it was a winner.
“I said, well, whoever finds it, I hope they’re lucky on it.”
WCLC is reminding lotto players to legibly print or sign their legal names on their tickets.