With a giant cheque for $12.5 million in his hands, Montreal-area man Shawn Batten had a whole lot to smile about on Monday.

“I’m feeling pretty good, still a little shocked,” Batten said.

On May 20th, the Monteregie resident got the phone call that changed his life. Loto-Quebec was on the line to tell him he was a Lotto Max Grand Prize winner.

“It took me some time to make sure it wasn’t a scam or fraud or something like that,” he said.

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When Batten checked his account on the Loto-Quebec app, he realized this was no jape.

He called his wife to share the good news. She was in the middle of a work meeting with 40 other people. Batten recalled telling her to make sure she was sitting down.

“She says, ‘NNo, it’s not real, it’s probably a joke,’ something like that,’” he explained.

He convinced her they were not getting scammed and she proceeded to go back to her meeting.

In spite of their win, neither husband nor wife is planning to retire.

“I’m still going to work for about two, three years probably. This is in my plan. I have my company, I have employees, clients. I have some obligations,” he said.

Batten is waiting for the dust to settle before making any major life-changing plans, but he does have a few ideas.

“Some travel touring with my family, things like that. I’ll do some work on the home, planning on buying a car. I changed my phone this weekend, big expense!” he said through laughter.

Batten is hoping to delve deeper into his photography hobby, and buy a cottage.

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