For an entire month of his life, Jerry Carpenter of Terrace Bay, Ontario, had a multi-million-dollar jackpot-winning lottery ticket just chilling in a bag, forgotten. A ticket he had only purchased out of boredom after a flight was cancelled due to a snowstorm.

Unbeknownst to the 51-year-old engineer, the lottery ticket he'd picked up at a Husky Truck Stop on Kennedy Road in Mississauga one month earlier was actually one of two winners splitting the $5 million top prize in the December 28, 2022 LOTTO 6/49 Classic Jackpot draw.

Carpenter has tried his luck with the lottery for five years, overcoming the seemingly insurmountable odds of actually scoring a top prize. His luck could have just as easily been misfortune, as he told Ontario Lottery and Gaming Corporation (OLG) officials that he had completely forgotten about his ticket weeks after purchasing it.

"We were returning from a family trip in Punta Cana and ended up stuck in Toronto due to a snowstorm, so I decided to pick up some tickets to kill some time," said Carpenter while claiming his prize at the OLG Prize Centre in Toronto.

"I shoved them in my bag and forgot about them," he said.

It was only when he went rummaging through his bag a week later that Carpenter rediscovered what we would soon realize was a very lucky ticket.

"A month later, I was looking for my daughter's passport when I came across my tickets. I checked them on the OLG App and was so shocked to discover my win! My wife said she felt numb," Carpenter told OLG officials.

"It feels like a rollercoaster ride. We went from getting stuck in Toronto because of our cancelled flights to winning $2.5 million."

Carpenter has some textbook plans for his newfound wealth, telling OLG officials that he plans to invest in his retirement, set up an education fund for his kids, travel the world, and maybe even buy a boat because why the heck not at this point?

"I would love to take a train around Europe with my wife and kids," said Carpenter, adding that "it was always my dream to own a sailboat."