dale anne freed
staff reporter
Not even the OPP officer who arrested a $4.4 million lottery winner wanted to wreck the man's moment of glory.
"He seemed like a decent guy," said Det.-Const. Kevin Finley, who was on duty at Ontario Lottery and Gaming Corp. headquarters Monday afternoon.
"I hate to wreck your happy dance," Finley told Barry Shell of Brampton as the officer discreetly grabbed his arm and arrested him on an outstanding warrant for several charges from 2003.
Finley recalled Shell telling him: "I'm still kind of in shock that I won this money so it's not a big deal that I have to spend the night in jail."
Shell spent the night in a Brampton jail, appeared in court on Tuesday and was released on $1,500 bail with a promise to return to court on July 30.
Dressed in a black suit and blue tie, his arresting officer waited patiently in the wings while a smiling Shell collected his cheque and posed for an OLG publicity photo.
Before Finley walked Shell to a police cruiser, Shell handed his cheque to his brother-in-law.
Until now, Shell has lived in a basement apartment in Brampton, the city where he grew up as the youngest sibling of two older brothers and an older sister. He attended Glendale Public School and Brampton Centennial Secondary School.
Every morning, he either took his 10-speed bike or transit to meet a friend who would take him to a job site where he worked as a carpenter building decks and doing renovations, often working in Muskoka cottage country or the GTA, said his older brother, Brian.
Shell now plans to move out of his basement apartment and buy a bigger home with property near Mississauga Rd.
Shell showed up at a Petro-Canada kiosk on Sunday with 50 cents in his pocket.
"He wanted to buy a pack of smokes," said his brother.
While there, he checked his ticket. The man in the booth was jumping up and down when he found he had a winner.
"It's a legitimate win," said OPP Staff Sgt. Bill Price, who is in charge of the unit that looks after OLG investigations.
Current photo ID is a requirement before collecting a lottery prize, said OLG spokesman Don Fister. If that ID does not match up, then the OPP officer on duty is notified.
When Shell went to the OLG, he produced a driver's licence from 1994 and the photo showed a much slimmer person. Since he had no other photo ID, Finley ran a police check and found the outstanding warrants.
According to court documents, Shell was charged in 2003 for allegedly stealing cameras, global positioning systems, memory cards and watches belonging to Kuehne + Nagel, an international transport and logistics company, and for having the items in his possession knowing they were obtained by crime.
When Shell picked up his lottery winnings, he didn't do the traditional happy dance. Still, Finley allowed him one luxury before escorting him away.
"He had a happy cigarette."
With files from Nicole Baute and Jim Wilkes
LOTTO BAD LUCK
1990 — Mark Green of Kingston defrauds a gas bar where he worked of $23,000, 10 years after winning $1 million. 1998 – When Bernard and Krista Nauss win $22.5 million in the Super 7, their criminal past resurfaces: charges of drug possession, stolen property and weapons offences after a raid on a Parkhill, Ont., area home.
2003 – Raymond Sobeski of Princeton, Ont., wins $30 million in the Super 7 lottery and goes into hiding after his ex-wives try to make claims on his money.
Compiled by Astrid Lange/Toronto Star library and Nicole Baute
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