Chad Seguin was always known as a prankster, but trying to tell his wife he won nearly $16-million in last Saturday’s record 6/49 jackpot proved impossible.
So he had a stranger do it.
“There was a gentleman there who actually lent me his cell phone to make the phone call,” the 41-year-old father of two said.
“I wasn’t in my right mind…basically he had to get on the phone with my wife and say, ‘Yeah, your husband is a multimillionaire today,’ so yes, it’s still quite surreal,” he said.
Onlookers clapped as a spokesman for the BC Lottery Corporation presented Seguin with the customary giant cheque, along with a smaller, more important cheque in the amount of $15.8-million Wednesday.
He was the first of four winners to claim his share of the $63-million prize, the largest single lottery jackpot in Canadian history.
Seguin said he doesn’t regularly buy lotto tickets, but he purchased two “quick picks” Saturday afternoon after hearing about the record jackpot in the media.
He made the life-changing discovery the next day.
“The first one came up as a dollar winner,” Seguin said. No surprise there. But after he scanned the second ticket “the number came up, and the number was so large I had to look at it three times.”
Seguin was in disbelief, something that hasn’t changed since he won, he said. Though the future holds endless possibilities for him, he plans on taking his new life one step at a time.
“It feels like I’ve been hit over the head,” he said. The Vancouver man said it's too early to say what he’ll do with his millions, but buying a new car, taking a vacation and donating to charity are up there.
But Seguin said he’ll heed the age-old advice “Don’t spend it all in one place.”
“You can always have a little bit of fun with money, but you always need to make sure we have enough financial security for the future as well,” he said.
With files from CTV British Columbia's Peter Grainger
