Hakeem Nosiru held $50 million in his hands.
And then it was gone.
The GTA’s newest multimillionaire could hardly believe it when he checked his Lotto Max ticket in January. He ran through the aisles of the convenience store shouting for joy and crying after it was confirmed he’d won the jackpot.
But a day later, the ticket was gone.
“I couldn’t sleep,” Nosiru said Monday as he and his wife of 29 years, Abiola, finally collected their prize. “I haven’t slept since.”
Nosiru had given the ticket to his wife to keep in her purse. Sometime after they went to church the next day it disappeared.
“I couldn’t sleep for days, I couldn’t eat. I was devastated,” Abiola said.
Ironically, Nosiru was so concerned about losing the ticket the previous day that he put it in an envelope and duct-taped it to his stomach. He gave it to his wife because he was still afraid he would misplace it.
When he found out she had lost it, he wasn’t mad, he said, it was in God’s hands.
“God gave us the money,” he said. “We lose the ticket and eventually we found it. Thank God for that.”
Months went by and the couple filled out all the paperwork with the Ontario Lottery and Gaming Corporation. Then, on April Fool’s Day, a member of their church parish called — she’d found the ticket. Abiola went to pick it up.
“When I found it I was so happy,” she said.
The OLG couldn’t pay out the jackpot immediately without the ticket and a police investigation ensued. When the ticket turned up, police established that it was Nosiru’s property. There was no finding of any criminality in the case, OLG spokesman Tony Bitonti said.
The lesson in all of this, the OLG says, is sign that ticket.
“Keep it in a safe place and check it often as well,” Bitonti said.
The couple, who are originally from Nigeria and have lived in Brampton for 17 years, said they don’t have any immediate plans to spend their jackpot. They’re just relieved the ordeal is over.
Losing the cash would have been heartbreaking, but not the end of their world, Abiola said.
“We believed that before the money there was a life,” she said. “After the money there would be a life.”
For now, they plan to focus on family.
“We are relieved, we are very excited, we are very happy,” Abiola said. “We’re going to relax with our (four) children and our (five) grandchildren.”
Source: The Sun
