It’s a good bet that this particular lottery winner wanted to get her house in order before claiming her ticket.
Beth Saunders of Penhold stepped forward in the nick of time to claim a Western 649 prize worth $1,006,750. The ticket was in a package she purchased on Feb. 6 of 2010. Winners must claim their tickets within one year of the draw date.
“A million dollars is a lot of money and I didn’t want my life to change,” Saunders told the Western Canada Lottery Corp. when she finally claimed her ticket.
“I don’t want people to treat me differently and I don’t want to treat people differently. I want to keep grounded,” Saunders says in a press release issued by the WCLC on Thursday.
Saunders purchased an eight-number Quick Pick combination package at the Fas Gas in Penhold. The combination costs $28 and produces 56 quick picks.
She checked her numbers the morning after the draw, while sitting at her kitchen table.
“All six numbers matched. I’m like most people — I couldn’t believe it at first. There was shock for a couple of months, a happy kind of shock,” she says in the press release.
While the six-number combination earned $1 million, Saunders won an additional $6,750 in prizes for which she became eligible by purchasing the eight-number combination package, said Alison Ball, corporate communications officer based in the WCLC’s Stettler office.
Saunders told the lottery corporation that she still hasn’t made any big plans for her windfall, although there may be a trip to Australia in the future.