$2.5 million lottery ticket stored in cookie tin before Canadian couple claimed big prize

A Canadian couple had an unforgettable holiday season, winning $2.5 million just a few days before Christmas.

The Atlantic Lottery said in a news release Thursday that Heather and Peter Bryan from Cole Harbour, Nova Scotia won half of the Lotto 6/49 Classic Jackpot in the Dec. 21 draw.

Peter heard that someone in Nova Scotia had won the big prize and decided to check his ticket.

“My coat was downstairs where I knew my ticket was, so I went down to grab it,” he said in the release.

“As I was going down, I saw the first few numbers on my phone, and then when I grabbed the ticket and looked, I saw those numbers on the first line. I stopped and said, ‘I can’t.’”

He scanned the ticket on his phone using the lottery app and realized he had won big.

Heather, meanwhile, was wrapping presents and watching Christmas movies with their daughter when Peter broke the news.

“We were watching the movie, and he came and stood in front of us. I looked at his face. His face was ashen. His eyes were glassy, and I said, ‘What’s wrong?'” she recounted.

“And he said, ‘We won the lottery!’ I said, ‘What? How much?'”

“He said, ‘All of it.'”

To keep the ticket safe, Heather and Peter kept the ticket in a cookie tin in the days before they claimed the prize.

“We just freaked out when he told us and then it was just chaos and excitement at that point,” Heather said.

“My daughter and I said, ‘We should be jumping around,’ so then we jumped around.”

Peter said he always imagined that if he won the lottery, he’d do something clever to announce it.

“But I couldn’t,” he said.

“I was speechless.”

The couple said they plan to use the money to travel, support their family and give back to the community.

“One of the things that comes with this win is the unburdening of a particular worry … everybody’s got something to worry about, but money is not one thing we have to worry about now,” Peter said.

The Classic Jackpot was split with another winning ticket purchased in western Canada.