Adding lottery ticket to peanuts purchase leaves B.C. woman $70 million richer

Vancouver -

Stopping for peanuts turned a woman from B.C.'s Lower Mainland into a multi-millionaire, thanks to a spur-of-the-moment decision to add a lottery ticket to her purchase.

Christine Lauzon's Lotto Max ticket – bought at a Shoppers Drug Mart in Burnaby, along with a pack of peanuts – matched all seven numbers in the Sept. 28 draw, winning her a massive $70 million prize.

"I just thought, 'Why not buy a ticket?'" Lauzon told the B.C. Lottery Corporation. "I have definitely dreamed about it but I never thought it would actually happen. You never think it's going to happen."

Lauzon's win marks the biggest lottery jackpot ever claimed in the province.

After checking her ticket at home, she shared the news with her roommate and then her father – but only after getting an expletive or two out of her system.

"The first thing, for me, was to swear because I couldn't believe it," Lauzon said.

She told the BCLC her plan is to meet her financial advisor, share some of her fortune with family, then spend a little time processing before deciding what to do with the rest.

"I feel nervous and excited all in one," Lauzon said in a BCLC news release. "I can't fully wrap my head around it all right now."

The odds of winning a Lotto Max jackpot, which requires matching all seven numbers without using the bonus, are said to be an infinitesimal one in 33,294,800.