Montrealer finds forgotten lottery ticket worth $1.75M in an old jacket

A Montreal man was cleaning out his wardrobe and readying some clothes for donation when he found a forgotten lottery ticket hidden in an old jacket a ticket worth $1.75 million.

Gregorio DeSantis hadn'tplanned on cleaning out the wardrobe, butsaid his sister encouragedhim to get the job done.

Thinking he might have won a few bucks, De Santis decided to see if the Lotto 6/49 ticket, dated Dec. 6, 2017, was worth anything.

When thelotteryticket was validated, he at firstthought he had won $1,750 a pretty exciting prize for anybody.

But, as it turns out, the prize was worth1,000 times that.

De Santis said his heart almost stopped when he realized he was suddenly amillionaire. He credits the unexpected win to his sister. He was still in shock during hisvisit toLoto-Qubecon Friday to collect his cheque.

"I would never have looked in thatwardrobe without her," he said.

DeSantiswants to organize his retirement plan and take sometime to think, he said. As a hockey fan, he said he will likely go see more games with his nephew.

The jackpot on Dec. 6, 2017was actually $7 million. It was divided into four parts.

According toLoto-Qubec's website, the claim period is one year from the draw date printed on the ticket or, for scratch tickets, one year from the product launch date.

In this case, the winning ticket was just two months shy of expiring.

With files from Radio Canada and La Presse Canadienne