“I think I won 64 million”: a sixty-year-old forgets his winning ticket and ends up validating it 19 days before the deadline

Merel Chiasson, a sixty-year-old from New Brunswick, Canada, went to claim, this Wednesday March 27, 2024, the sum of 64 million Canadian dollars that he had won playing the game. last year. He will have kept his ticket for 347 days.

Merel Chiasson, a resident of the town of Bas-Caraquet, in the province of New Brunswick, Canada, left a winning ticket on his nightstand ;worth 64 million Canadian dollars (more than 41 million euros). Within a few days, this regular could no longer collect his winnings, indicates 20 minutes.

Le voici, le gagnant que nous attendions tous avec impatience! 🎉 Merel Chiasson, de Bas-Caraquet (N.-B.), avait sur sa table de nuit depuis 347 jours le billet gagnant du Lotto 6/49 de 64 MILLIONS DE DOLLARS! 🥳 Pour en savoir plus : https://t.co/jhGuo7PL2Q pic.twitter.com/Pmn7KvVFAW

— Loto Atlantique (@LotoAtlantique) March 28, 2024

The ticket forgotten on the bedside table

On April 15, 2023, the crab hunter from Bas-Caraquet plays the national 6/49 Atlantic Loto game. When he returns home, the man carelessly places his ticket on his nightstand with the others, without ever paying attention to it again. He says he checks his tickets one month before they expire.

"I’I always did it like that and I never thought I would win the jackpot, so I left the tickets there and I'm not too worried about it", he explains in a press release published by the Quebec lottery. The lucky guy explained that he had heard about the unclaimed jackpot several times without having imagined being the holder of the winning ticket.

In 19 days

After a year and a few days, the Atlantic Loto took many steps to find the big winner, because the ticket was about to expire. A town crier was even dispatched for the occasion to the Gloucester County, in eastern Canada.

Le crieur public du Lotto 6/49 a visité Gloucester, au N.-B. pour faire passer le message et aider à rechercher le billet gagnant non réclamé du Jackpot Boule d'Or du Lotto 6/49 de 64 millions de dollars. Le ticket expirera le 15 avril si aucun gagnant ne se présente. 19+ pic.twitter.com/svrneJiQ7A

— Loto Atlantique (@LotoAtlantique) March 27, 2024

The 61-year-old man ended up checking the ticket and joined his partner at work to tell her the news. "I think I won 64 million. I'm not sure", he told her with emotion, overwhelmed by the number of zeros. The big winner finally went to the Atlantic Loto this Wednesday, March 27, 2024, 19 days before his ticket was no longer valid.

Despite the huge gain, he remains lucid: "It's not going to change me, I'm still the same person", he estimates before concluding: "I don't want anything big". According to Le Parisien, he plans to use his winnings to help his family and retire well deserved.

The Canadian also claimed to have bought other lotto tickets after validating the one that made him a multi-millionaire and assures that he will continue to play.