Niagara Falls couple to collect $41.3-million prize
Posted July 19, 2011 4:02 pm.
This article is more than 5 years old.
TORONTO, Ont. – Carmen and Loretta Demizio are $41.3 million richer Tuesday after collecting their prize winnings at the Ontario Lottery and Gaming Corporation prize centre at Yonge and Dundas.
The couple from Niagara Falls – both retired schoolteachers – were all smiles while holding their cheque.
Carmen told reporters he discovered he owned the winning ticket while at a convenience store, and then quickly shared the news with his wife.
“When she came home, I said ‘would you please check the ticket for us,’ and she did. Needless to say she was jumping up and down.”
“Screaming like a maniac,” Loretta added.
Carmen had been playing the same lotto numbers for over 20 years.
When asked how they broke the news to their three children, Carmen said “they came for dinner. I cracked open a bottle of red wine, we sat around the table and I said ‘do your happy dance.'”
“I said to my son ‘what new toy would you like?’ and I went around [and asked] ‘what new car?’ And they all kind of were stunned, and then I showed them the ticket.”
Their children finally reacted with cries and screams of happiness.
The couple plans to share the wealth with family, travel to Las Vegas and Italy, and fix up an old MG, which Carmen has owned since 1972. However, they have no plans to move from the home they have lived in for over 20 years.
This marks the biggest single-ticket Lotto 649 prize ever handed out in Ontario.
