Pictou County couple celebrates lottery win
Martin Pitts walked into the Foodland in Westville on what was probably a routine Monday morning for him.
He walked out knowing he was a millionaire.
Pitts, a Canada Bread franchisee owner who once managed the Foodland for five years, had a cashier check his Atlantic 49 ticket, one he had purchased Saturday at the Needs convenience store in Westville.
“She said ‘You won a million dollars’ and we all started screaming,” he recalled Wednesday afternoon, as he celebrated his good luck with friends and family at the West River fire hall.
“I put the cheque in the bank this morning, I’m good.”
Pitts and his wife Jean have three children and eight grandchildren. Most of the jobs he’s had in his life, the 60-year-old has had to work long hours, “six, seven days a week for 40 years,” he added.
He’ll share some of the winnings with family and will treat himself to an early retirement as soon as he can sell his franchise.
“I’m going to enjoy it, and I’m going to retire.”
He and his wife had already
BY KEVIN ADSHADE
purchased a plot of land and he planned on building a home on it himself, and “this will make it a lot easier.”
His daughter Beth lives just across the street from the Foodland, heard a commotion in the store parking lot Monday morning around 8 a.m. and wondered what was going on.
A few minutes later, she’d learn what the excitement was all about.
“He called me at 8:07 and asked if I could get a babysitter. I said ‘What’s the matter?’ and he said, ‘I need you to drive me to Moncton. Mom and I won a million dollars.’”
At first, Beth wasn’t sure whether she should believe him, “until I heard his voice crack. I am relieved they don’t have to worry anymore. I’m excited for their retirement together.”
“We were going to build the house on our own and take our time with it,” Martin said. “Now we get to watch someone build it for us. And we’re adding a pool to the plans.”
The retailer will receive a one per cent seller’s prize.
The odds of winning the Atlantic 649 grand prize are approximately one in 14 million.