For Dale McEwen of Regina April Fool’s day this year came with a life changing surprise, a 70 million dollar lotto win.

McEwen and his family were on their way to a family ski trip in British Columbia – when they decided to stop off at the South Country Co-Op gas bar in Dunmore Alberta to buy a few tickets for that night’s Lotto Max draw. McEwen had been playing the lottery for some time – and opted for a quick pick draw on this buy as opposed to numbers of any significance.

The family was on their way to dinner that night when McEwen decided to check his tickets using the Lotto! Spot App.

“we’d bought a couple tickets. Checked one – it was a 2 dollar winner. Checked another one and the app said it appeared to be a 70 million dollar winner. We just sat there stunned for awhile.”

Needless to say the McEwen’s cut their ski trip short.

“Ski trip ruined!” McEwen laughed while talking to lotto officials. The family cut their trip short and returned to Saskatchewan to start the process of claiming the prize.

The big win has finally sunk in for Dale – he’s had a few weeks to process and let it sink in he says. “It’s overwhelming. For a bit I just sat there in awe. It’s hard to know what to do when you look at your phone and you see that number.”

With three weeks to digest the win – Dale says he will be using some of the money to help parents and siblings. Working in the trucking industry for 28 years – McEwen does have plans to make an “early exit”. “It’s time to get out of that,” he said with a grin during a press event Tuesday morning.

So many things are possible with a lotto win of this magnitude – we all have had lotto win fantasies, Dale says he’d talked about it with coworkers previously.

“When you’re joking around at work – you think if I win I’ll do this, and this and this. When reality hits – and your mind is a fog, those thoughts go out the window and you don’t know how to process it.”