Ontario Lottery Winner Wants To Sponsor A Few Families This Christmas & It's So Heartwarming

What do you do when you win a lot of money in a lottery draw right before Christmas? Probably give back to the community, and that's precisely what this Ontario lottery winner did.

Michael Vanderteems from Newcastle won $267,742.90 in the October 22 LOTTARIO draw and wants to do something meaningful with his money this Christmas.

It all started when the 56-year-old father, a regular lottery player, said he was having a "fantastic day" with his wife when they stopped to buy a ticket on their way home, he said at the OLG Prize Centre in Toronto.

At first, the winner thought he scored $26,000 when the clerk corrected him.

"When the clerk pointed out that I won $267,000 my knees gave out for a split second," Vanderteems said.

Obviously, winning a big sum can be hard to believe sometimes, which is totally understandable. But how many times would you have to scan a ticket to think it's true? Apparently, a bunch of times.

"I went home to tell my wife, but she didn't believe me," he said. "She checked the ticket on her OLG App and she was shocked. We scanned the ticket a ton of times and cried tears of joy."

The father said that he and his wife plan to give back.

"We will sponsor a few families in our community this Christmas. The rest will be used to help us buy a house and we want to share some with our children," Vanderteems said.

"I feel so happy – I want to spread this happiness around. I'm shaking with excitement," he concluded.