Calgary local Mitchel Dyck says he doesn’t usually play the lottery, but when a cashier asks if he wants a lottery ticket he doesn’t hesitate to say yes.

And when he said yes to adding a ticket for the October 21 LOTTO MAX draw to his other purchases from Centex Bearspaw at 25238 Township Road in Calgary on October 7, he had no idea that that decision would be life-altering. Dyck’s spur-of-the-moment purchase matched all seven winning numbers – 1, 9, 25, 35, 41, 43, and 50 – to win the massive $70 million jackpot that tantalized players for 21 draws in a row this summer.

Calgary’s newest multi-millionaire discovered his win when he asked a cashier to check his tickets at a local store three weeks after the draw on November 7.

“I handed it to the cashier who scanned it; I thought we won $70,000!” he recalled as he claimed his prize. “We tried to count the zeroes, but the numbers flew by quickly," he said. “I already had goosebumps!”

But those goosebumps were nothing – when Dyck and the cashier realized he had won ten times that amount, he could barely process what was happening.

“Then we started counting and realized it’s $70 million. I thought, ‘is that even a thing!?’” Dyck said, recalling how surreal the moment felt. “It was just something you never expect.”

He explained that the next few moments were a blur.

 “I followed the cashier to the back room – he was calling the prize office to verify my win, and I wasn’t going to let that ticket out of my sight! It was definitely nerve-wracking to have [the ticket] overnight,” he laughed.

“We went the next day and got a safety deposit box for it.”

Dyck said he and his family are still adjusting to the idea of having $70 million, and plan to be smart about how they approach the windfall. We found a private banker who will help us manage this,” he said. “For right now it’s just going in the bank until we can make some more plans.”