Ken Salter says he was “shaking like a leaf” when he discovered he was holding a lottery ticket worth $20 million.
Ken and his wife Susan are long-time residents of Telkwa, a village of 1,300 people just south of Smithers, and their life-changing win nearly didn’t happen.
“I don’t often play the Lotto Max draw on Tuesdays, but I had a winning ticket for $20 from the previous Friday draw, so I thought I’d play the Tuesday draw,” Ken explained.
“After this, I think I might play the Tuesday draws more often!”
The big cheque looks great on you! Congrats Ken and Sue from #Telkwa! pic.twitter.com/a292FFjaoV
— BCLC (@BCLC) November 8, 2019
Ken says he overheard the store clerk talking about the $20-million winner coming from the Stikine region, so he told her she “might want to scan this ticket” with a grin on his face.
Unsurprisingly, Susan didn’t believe Ken when he first called her to let her know.
“At first there was nothing but dead silence, so I thought something was wrong,” says Susan.
“But then he whispered really quietly ‘we just won $20-million dollars’, and then I thought he was joking.”
Despite the massive win, Ken and Susan has no plans to leave the village of Telkwa.
Instead, they’re going to use the money to build their dream house on their existing property, after a river cruise in Europe, of course.
