Follow Canadian Investment Immigration and Life in Canada: Winning the lottery is a "windfall from the sky," but losing the ticket afterward is surely enough to make one despair. Kathryn Jone from Hamilton, Ontario, Canada, won a $50 million (approximately 300 million RMB) jackpot on November 30, 2012, but she lost the ticket. For a year, she struggled with the lottery company, and recently she finally received a "breakthrough" from them.
According to reports, the Ontario Lottery and Gaming Corporation (OLG) announced on the 3rd that Jone is one step closer to claiming her prize, even though she lost the ticket a year ago and the ticket's one-year validity period has expired. However, the lottery company has confirmed that Jone is indeed the purchaser of the winning ticket.
Reportedly, Jone is an engineer who purchased the lottery ticket at a pharmacy in Cambridge International College in Canada last year. However, upon discovering that she had won, she was overwhelmed with mixed emotions and could not help but cry during a media interview. She said she felt like she was struck by lightning twice: once for unexpectedly winning the $50 million jackpot, and the second time for losing the ticket, with the lottery board believing the winning ticket had expired and delaying her check.
The lottery company investigated surveillance footage, questioned Jone multiple times, and checked credit card records as well as the exact time and place of purchase, ultimately proving that Jone was indeed the owner of the winning ticket. One of Jone's sisters also owns a lottery store, which raised suspicions with the lottery company, but the final investigation results confirmed that this was unrelated to Jone's win.
Ultimately, the Ontario Lottery and Gaming Corporation has stated that there will be a 30-day process to ensure that no one else claims the ticket as their own. Jone expressed that she fully respects the rules and is now anxiously waiting for this period to end.
