Belize City man wins Lotto

Many of us who faithfully buy Lotto tickets twice every week and anxiously tune in to TV or radio at nine o’clock to see if our dream has come true, may be a bit jealous tonight. The reason is that the latest Lotto winner didn’t even know he had won until he went to buy a ticket for the following draw.

Elbert Davis Lopez, $75,000 Lotto Winner

“Aah, a great feeling that I didn’t know how to express myself. I guess when it was all over, I felt bad at some of the things I said when I was expressing myself.”

Thirty year old Elbert Davis Lopez, a teacher of Wesley College, had just walked into the Lotto office on Saturday to spend two dollars on a ticket, but little did he know, he would end up walking away with seventy five thousand. Lopez, who is a regular Lotto buyer, said after buying the ticket for last Wednesday night’s draw, he did not think to check to see if he was the winner.

Elbert Davis Lopez

“I came in on Saturday to buy a ticket, because my wife had told me that the pot was much higher than when I saw it on Wednesday. On Wednesday, it was seventy five thousand. I had bought a ticket and Saturday, we were doing our shopping and I came by to purchase another ticket, thinking the pot was higher, nobody had won. When I came, I saw in the window, they had twenty five thousand, so I figure well someone had probably won. So I came in and ask, and they say somebody had won and I ask, has the person collected? And they said no. I looked at the numbers and saw the numbers they look very familiar and check my ticket and well, I had the big one.”

Money, that Lopez says will be used wisely.

Elbert Davis Lopez

“I spent the entire weekend doing a lot of budgeting. So, I have fifty percent of it will go into a fixed deposit and then the other fifty percent, I will use it to pay off my mortgage and do some other stuff.”

After government took its fifteen percent cut, Lopez took home sixty three thousand, seven hundred and fifty dollars.

Since there was no winner in Saturday’s draw the jackpot for Wednesday is twenty seven thousand, five hundred dollars.