Cash prize had to be big enough to ‘wake up my wife’, Mississauga lotto winner says

Ray Critch not only double checked to make sure his eyes weren’t fooling him, but he figured it best to go a step further and triple check his good fortune before making his next move.

As it turned out, the Mississauga man’s first thought — that he and his wife had just won $100,000 in the lottery — was absolutely correct.

Critch and his wife of 35 years, Tammie Hibbs, held a Lotto 6/49 ticket from the Aug. 30 draw that was a big winner. The ticket matched the last six of seven Encore numbers in exact order.

“I checked the winning numbers on the website early in the morning and saw a lot of numbers matched, but had to triple check to be sure — especially knowing I was going to wake up my wife to tell her,” shared Critch while at the OLG Prize Centre in Toronto to pick up the couple’s winnings.

The winners said they are regular lottery players who love to play both Lotto Max and Lotto 6/49. And they always play the Encore numbers as well.

“Ray comes into the room and said we won $100,000. I was shocked and had a big smile on my face,” recalled Hibbs. “I believed him right away; he had his signature grin on his face.”

Critch and Hibbs say they plan to pay for their children’s schooling and also pay some bills. The rest will be split equally between them and their kids, they added.

More specifically, Critch plans to treat himself to some records and Hibbs hopes to enjoy a beach vacation.

“It feels really nice,” Hibbs said.

“I think I’ll believe it completely when I see it in my bank account,” Critch laughed.

The winning ticket was purchased at Petro Canada, on Burnhamthorpe Road in Mississauga.