Kitchener woman receives the best retirement gift ever
Carol Knipfel won $1 million after spending 22 years working as a utility dispatcher with city
KITCHENER — One of the first questions many new lottery winners are asked is whether they’ll quit their job. Carol Knipfel won’t have to worry about that question coming up from family and friends.
The Kitchener woman won $1 million with Lotto Max on a ticket she bought after her final shift as a utility dispatcher for the City of Kitchener on June 1. The 68year-old retiree is still shocked with her good luck.
“It’s ... I don’t know, unbelievable,” she said. “I don’t know what to say.”
Knipfel spent 22 years answering phone calls from residents who were often upset they didn’t have any hot water, or who smelled gas and wanted someone sent out to repair the problem.
“I wasn’t ready at 65,” she said of why she chose to retire at the beginning of June. Knipfel has also worked as a bank teller and at a travel agency.
“But when I decided this Christmas it was time to retire, I could barely make it to June 1.”
The $1-million prize was one of six Max Millions draws on June 1, and five of those six prizes were awarded that day. The main prize draw of $60 million was not won. Knipfel bought the ticket from C & J Variety on Belmont Avenue in Kitchener.
“I don’t usually buy lottery tickets but knew it was a big draw with all those other smaller (Max Millions) draws,” she said. “I don’t think I’d even want to win the $60 million, I wouldn’t know what to do with it all.”
Her final day at work came with the standard cake and retirement party, but she was late getting out of work and her son had called saying he had car trouble and needed help getting to an appointment. It was on the way home from that appointment that she bought the ticket.
Knipfel may have bought the ticket on June 1, but it wasn’t until June 10 that she learned she was a big winner.
She checked the ticket at Food Basics at a self-serve scanner, but when it said “Big Winner,” she took it to a nearby convenience store to check it again.
That scanner also said she was a big winner — but she still didn’t know what that meant or how
much the ticket was worth.
The store owner scanned it and when she got a call from the Ontario Lottery and Gaming Corp. to answer some security questions, she finally realized she was getting a $1 million payday as her own personal retirement gift.
“It was so unreal,” Knipfel said.
The lottery corporation says that since its launch in September 2009, Ontario Lotto Max players have won more than $4.3 billion in prizes, including 59 jackpot wins and 452 Max Millions tickets across the province.
Knipfel has paid off the mortgage for her home near Belmont Village and the lease on her Hyundai Elantra runs out in September, so she’s looking to buy a new car.
“I was thinking of getting a Honda, but now I think it’ll maybe be a Buick SUV,” she said.
Knipfel isn’t much of a traveller and may downsize from her two-storey home to a bungalow, but she plans to leave much of the prize to her three sons and six grandkids.
She’ll also likely continue to buy the occasional lottery ticket, and is happy with her decision to call it a career when she did.
“I love retirement. It’s the best thing I’ve ever done,” she said with a laugh.