‘Blue-collar’ Albertans celebrate $60M jackpot
Blue-collar Albertans went from looking for chicken feed to counting ‘the zeros’
ST. ALBERT A pair of self-described “common, everyday, blue-collar Albertans” are $60 million richer after winning the largest lottery jackpot in Alberta’s history.
Robin Walker and her husband, Brett McCoy, stopped in at the McLeod Trading Post in the tiny hamlet of Peers, about 177 km west of Edmonton, on Sept. 23, the day after the big draw, to pick up chicken feed and some treats for Walker’s four children while McCoy waited for her in the car, she said Wednesday at the lottery corporation office in St. Albert.
Walker said when she scanned the winning Lotto Max quick pick ticket, a “whole bunch of numbers came up on the screen.”
When she realized what had happened, she yelled for McCoy.
“I hollered out the door, ‘Brett! Get in here, you’ve got to see this, we won $60,000,’ ” Walker said.
“The store clerk came after me and said, ‘Robin — count the zeros.’”
The Yellowhead County couple won the entire $60-million jackpot, setting a record for the biggest lottery prize yet won in Alberta.
McCoy, a pipeline worker, and Walker — who met McCoy when they worked at the same oilfield company, but now works as a stay-at-home mother to her four children while taking care of the couple’s hobby farm — had already won two separate $100 prizes in the weeks leading up to their big win.
After having joked with neighbours that it was a sign of a big win to come, their friends at first didn’t believe the couple had actually won $60 million.
“It was pretty surreal; it still is,” McCoy said.
The couple is taking time before deciding what to spend their new fortune on, but before their win, McCoy said the couple had dreamed of expanding their farm.
“She can buy all the chickens she wants now,” McCoy said.
The winning Lotto Max numbers were 2, 10, 37, 38, 43 and 47. McCoy and Walker’s ticket was an $11 quick pick, with six selections and the Extra entered.