August Lottery Winner Stories 5 – CANADA – Barry Shell – $4.4M

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In Canada Lottery life it was a case of good and bad news for Barry Shell. The good news was when he discovered that he’d won over $4 million in the lotto, the bad news was that by the end of the day he’d ended up arrested and placed in jail. Barry Shell, from Brampton, Ontario in Canada chose to pick up his winning check for $4,377,298, which was the jackpot prize in the July 18 draw for the Lotto 6/49.

“I went to the store and checked my ticket on the self-serve ticket checker,” Shell was quoted as saying in a news release from the Ontario Loterie and Gaming Corporation. “As soon as I saw how much I had won, I grabbed a pen and signed my ticket.”

On Monday afternoon, a happy and joyous Barry Shell was published in a photo holding up his winning check outside the OLG headquarters on Dundas Street West in Toronto. After the photo was taken he walked away from the building and straight into the waiting arms of the local Peel Police officers. Shell was apparantly wanted by police on a six-year-old charge for failing to appear in court in relation to a theft of $5,000 and being in possession of property obtained through crime.

According to a spokesman for the OLG, every lottery winner undergoes a security check, and if anything is turned up during the course of the investigation the matter is turned over to the Ontario Provincial Police. Shell, 45, was held overnight and appeared in court on Tuesday. He has been charged and released.

The news release said Shell “has no immediate plans for the windfall.”