Maria Carreiro of Toronto was thrilled when she thought she had won $40,000 (Canadian).
Then her daughter went to the Web and figured out that mom had won $40 million Friday in Canada's Lotto Max game. That's about $39.4 million in U.S. dollars.
"I run down the street [to the store] like a crazy woman and check the lottery ticket and it says $40-million and I go, 'Oh my God,' " a very exuberant Carreiro said Monday.
And when we say very exuberant, we mean it. Check out the video that The Windsor Star has posted in which Carreiro performs her "happy dance" and shares her story. It's wonderful. We've also embedded a shorter version, taken from a different angle, atop this post.
According to this report on the Toronto Star's website:
"Carreiro has spent much of her 51 years struggling, never having much but never wanting much more than love from her family. Her husband, Mario, works two jobs in the winter to make ends meet and Maria rarely sees him. But Monday was his last day working at a construction site, because the couple now has more money than they ever imagined they would."
As for the mix-up about how much she had won, Carreiro told reporters Monday that when she first looked at her ticket, "I just see 4-zero. ... I never win this much amount of money." And when her daughter figured out that the prize was 1,000 times better, Carreiro's first reaction was "No way!"
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