Woman Wins $40M, Not $40K Sparking Wild Celebrations (VIDEO, PHOTO)
A woman has won $40M, not $40K as she originally thought, sparking scenes of wild celebration, according to reports.
Maria Carreiro, from Toronto, is apparently over the moon after realizing she was now a millionaire, after mistakenly thinking she had won $40,000.
Carreiro spoke of her shock on Monday at winning the lotto Max jackpot draw last Friday.
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The 51 year old woman was already delighted, thinking that she had struck it lucky to win $40,000.
However, that amount is dwarfed by her real prize money amount, and it appears as though she simply had not seen the extra three zero digits in her original excitement at winning.
The $40,000 prize she originally thought she had won ended up being just 0.1 percent of her real prize - a massive $40 million.
Carriero has described her excitement at going to tell her family that she had won $40,000: "I went home and I told my daughter, 'Oh, I won $40,000! I won $40,000!'"
Her daughter was of course delighted and just as excited. However, she went to check the numbers for herself just to check that her mom had not made a mistake, and it was then that the even bigger win was revealed.
After the daughter pointed out that the jackpot was in fact for $40 million, not $40,000, Carreiro apparently ran back down the street "like a crazy woman" to check her ticket numbers again for herself.
"It said $40 million and then I go: 'Oh my God.' And I ran back up the street, home and then I go: 'I need a glass of water.'
"So I drank a glass of water and said: 'Let me go sit down and relax.' And that was it," she excitedly described.
Later she broke the news to her other family members, and at first her husband refused to believe it, and thought that he was being wound up.
However, she has now been officially identified as the winner by the Ontario Lottery and Gaming Corporation, and her husband has already reported that he will now quit his job: "He told his boss...'I am going to work with you Monday, after that I quit!'"
Carreiro meanwhile has said, "I am going to go for dinner with my whole family at The Mandarin, all you can eat! That's what I'm going to do and then I am going to go home, take a shower and go to sleep."
Here is a video of Carreiro winning the jackpot:
