Whitehorse Daily Star

Image title

Photo by Vince Fedoroff

A MILLION-PLUS – Cal and Rose Murdoch display their $1,000,008 cheque from the Lotto 6/49 at this morning’s news conference in Whitehorse. The lucky couple plan to spend their windfall partly on debt reduction, their children and ‘a new countertop.’

‘It still feels surreal,’ says $1-million winner

“I’m putting in a new countertop, because I hated our old one.”

By Christopher Reynolds on February 27, 2015

“I’m putting in a new countertop, because I hated our old one.”

Rosemarie Murdoch has plans — big and small — for her home, her family and her life, now that she and her husband, Cal, have in their hands the winning $1-million Lotto 6/49 ticket from Feb. 4.

The Whitehorse couple intends to spread the money around, albeit responsibly.

“The first thing we’re going to do is pay off our debt,” said Cal, part-owner of Integra Tire, where he bought the winning ticket on Jan. 20.

The lucky duo say the prize money will sweep away their mortgage, credit card debt and some other red ink.

They’ve already dipped into their generous side, donating cash to several anonymous charities.

Cal was particularly proud of how his three kids, all in their mid- to late-20s, handled the windfall.

“They didn’t ask if they were going to get anything,” he told reporters this morning.

When he informed them, “they were like, really?!’”

Cal and Rose spent two weeks in Las Vegas, Phoenix and the American southwest oblivious to the fortune that awaited them up north.

“We just went all over the country without knowing we had won,” Cal said.

On their return later in February, they learned with mild interest the winning ticket for the Lotto 6/49 guaranteed prize draw had landed in Whitehorse.

Rose then compared a printout of the winning numbers against their ticket’s digits.

“I get home and she says we didn’t win,” Cal recalled at a Lotteries Yukon press conference.

“I looked at the ticket and I says, ‘Yes, we did.’

“‘No, we didn’t,’ she says. ‘Yes, we did,’” Cal replied.

After the revelation was mutual, their reactions were calm yet “surreal,” he said.

“Shock,” said Rose.

“Surprise,” said Cal.

“Then I couldn’t eat lunch and I had to go back to work,” Rose laughed.

The longtime lotto players couldn’t believe their luck, and not only because the odds of winning are extremely remote.

The couple typically buys tickets for the Saturday guaranteed prize draw only.

Because they were going away for a few weeks, however, they chose to stock up in advance, which obligated them to purchase Wednesday tickets as well.

The draw is made twice a week.

The oversized novelty cheque the duo received today is eight bucks north of a million.

That’s because they won a $3 play-again prize for matching two of six main numbers on the ticket, and $5 for two matching main numbers plus a bonus number.

They will hand over the two lattés’ worth of coin to Cal’s brother-in-law, or at least the free play ticket, they said.

“It still feels surreal,” Cal said.

The Yukon, though in a mild economic slump, seems to be on a hot streak in the lotto world.

Last December, Dave Harper, a Marsh Lake resident and local sanitation worker, hit it big with more than $3.5 million in Lotto 6/49 quick pick winnings — the second-largest jackpot ever in the territory.

The no. 1 windfall came just over a year earlier, when eight Faro co-workers hit it big — $25-million big — with a Lotto Max ticket on Nov. 1 2013.

The Murdochs’ winning Lotto 6/49 guaranteed prize draw selection was 28922579-01.

The guaranteed prize draw feature was added to Lotto 6/49 in September 2013.

Be the first to comment

Add your comments or reply via Twitter @whitehorsestar

In order to encourage thoughtful and responsible discussion, website comments will not be visible until a moderator approves them. Please add comments judiciously and refrain from maligning any individual or institution. Read about our user comment and privacy policies.

Your name and email address are required before your comment is posted. Otherwise, your comment will not be posted.