Well this is the definition of a feel good story. A man who works and lives in Northern Canada, bought a lottery ticket for the Lotto Max, and ended up walking away with a cool $16,666,666.00. Now that is sweet, good for him. The best part is that he plans on spending his time and winnings in Costa Rica! Which is a good thing for the economy and for worldwide publicity, for the beautiful country that we all call home. Steve Murphy lives in the North of BC in a small town of 500 people called Atlin, so he will undoubtedly love the warm tropical weather that we have here in Costa Rica.

Being that I am Canadian, I feel great for this guy, who most likely spent his life working hard to support his family, in some of the coldest weather on the planet. It couldn’t have happen to a better more deserving person, he is even going to donate some of his winnings to the local community and recreation groups in Atlin. Which will provide many families with the money they need to put their kids in hockey, which as you know, is a Canadian past time, almost as popular as Maple Syrup.

The below is taken from the original article on 24 Hours Vancouver, which is a free commuter newspaper in Vancouver available at all of the Skytrain stations that at one point was owned by Billionaire business mogul, Jim Pattison, of the Pattison Group.

“A B.C. mine manager struck lottery gold last week, claiming a third of a $50 million Lotto Max jackpot on Friday.

Steve Murphy, of the northwestern B.C. municipality of Atlin, plans to vacation in Costa Rica with his $16.6 million winnings. The other two winners were from Quebec.

“I stuck the lottery ticket in the Check-A-Ticket machine and I thought I’d won $16,000,” he said. “I double checked with the clerk and all the numbers came up. Everything lit up, I couldn’t believe it.”

In a statement, Murphy said he has plans to contribute to local community and recreation groups in his hometown, which has a population of 500.

“The whole town knew in about 10 minutes,” he said.

“I went over to my sister’s house where we opened a bottle of champagne and celebrated. She couldn’t believe it either.”

The 52-year-old said he took the first flight to Vancouver to claim his big win. He bought his ticket at Atlin Food Basket, B.C.’s northernmost lottery ticket centre.”