A spontaneous lottery ticket purchase turned out to a life-changing decision for 62-year-old real estate agent, Velauthan Vamadevan, when his Quick Pick ticket bagged him a CAD$ 20 million prize.
The Mississauga resident stopped at a gas station on Saturday, October 18, 2014, to top-up his tank and, realizing the Canada Lotto 649 drawing would be held in a few hours, decided to buy a ticket.
"It was my son's birthday and I decided to give it a shot," Vamadevan said. "I was at the gas station filling up, so I purchased one Quick Pick."
Vamadevan's Quick Pick turned out to be the only ticket that matched all the winning numbers drawn later that evening. He claimed his prize on Wednesday and told lottery officials he'd never expected to win so forgot to check his ticket.
"Then I heard the winner was from Mississauga so I checked a couple of tickets I had in my wallet," Vamadevan explained. "But they weren’t the winning tickets. I thought maybe someone else I know from Mississauga was the winner."
At the time his lucky Quick Pick was lying forgotten on a shelf. He found it on Tuesday night and went online to check if it was the winner.
"I was speechless," he said.
The hardest thing of all was convincing his wife and children, who wouldn't believe him until they'd seen the ticket for themselves.
When asked about his plans for the money, Vamadevan said he hadn’t decided and admitted he was still trying to come to terms with winning such a big prize.
"I'm still shocked," he said. "I knew since Sunday there was a winner and I kept thinking, 'What a lucky guy!' I guess you never know."
