While Chase the Ace has made one woman more than $1 million richer, another woman says she left the final draw penniless and heartbroken after her purse was stolen.
Paulette Morrison says she was at the bar inside the arena in Inverness before the draw Saturday night when someone offered her a seat.
As she sat down, she says she put her purse on the ground out of habit, but only took her eyes off of it for a few seconds.
“When I sat, I turned to pick my purse up and my purse was gone,” says Morrison.
Announcements were made over the arena microphone, but no one returned the lost bag.
In addition to her wallet and identification, Morrison says she also lost her cellphone, which contained the last photos she took of her mom before she passed away a few weeks ago.
“It was just the most empty feeling I’ve ever felt in my life,” she says.
“I don’t really have any recent photos of my mom and I, so I took some pictures of her in the hospital room that day, and they’re mine. They’re nobody else’s.”
She says she knows the bag was stolen because when she cancelled her credit card, she was told it had been used at the liquor store in Inverness Saturday evening.
Morrison says she isn’t sure if she will ever see her purse again, but if she does, she wants to press charges against the person who took it.
“I believe they should be held be held accountable for what they did,” she says. “I was just having fun and then somebody did this, just totally violated me.”
The RCMP are investigating the theft.
With files from CTV Atlantic's Ryan MacDonald
