Ontario man wins $2.5M on lottery ticket he initially forgot about

A Toronto man won $2.5 million with a lottery ticket that he initially forgot about, checking it weeks after the draw.

The Ontario Lottery and Gaming Corporation (OLG) said in a news release that Scarborough resident Christopher Baker won half of a $5 million Lotto 6/49 classic jackpot on the June 15 draw.

His ticket was one of two that shared the jackpot, the OLG noted.

Baker has been an occasional lottery player, typically purchasing quick pick Lotto 6/49 and Lotto Max tickets.

The release said that Baker didn’t find out about his windfall until weeks after the draw because he forgot to check.

“I was at home when I remembered I had a little stack of tickets I had yet to check,” Baker said in the release.

“As I scanned my tickets on the OLG app, I reached the last one, a Lotto 6/49 ticket from June.”

“Big winner” popped up on the screen and Baker said he wondered how much he had won.

“Then I saw the prize amount and couldn’t process all the zeros,” he said.

“I took a screenshot and counted the zeros,” Baker added.

“I checked the winning numbers on OLG.ca and compared them to my ticket. My heart was pounding, but the more I checked the details, the more elated I felt.”

He said he’s grateful for the big win and never thought it’d happen.

Baker, who works as a designer, said he hasn’t been able to think about what to do with the money because “it hasn’t felt real until now.”

“I want to invest for my future and for my kids. I’d love to celebrate with a trip. I just need to figure out where to go and what to do,” he said.

The winning ticket was bought at in Scarborough at Pik-Kwik Convenience on Kingston Road.