'I can relax for a bit': B.C. man plans to buy house, retire after $500K lotto win

Michael Beauchamp in a photo handed out by BCLC

A Cranbrook, B.C. man was driving to work when he found out he had won $500,000 on a Lotto Max draw.

Michael Beauchamp matched all four numbers of the Lotto Max Extra, an add-on game to some lotteries, for the June 20 draw.

“I pulled over to check my ticket,” he said in a BCLC release Wednesday. “I was shocked and had to ask myself, ‘Is this real?’”

He called his partner, Patti, before resuming his drive.

“I sent Patti a picture and asked her if it was real,” he recalled. “She’s the only one I’ve told so far and she was like, ‘Wow!’ She was super happy for me.”

Now $500,000 richer, Beauchamp has started searching for a house to purchase and is looking forward to retiring early.

The win left him feeling “speechless and phenomenal,” he said. “I can relax a bit and start planning for retirement.”

Beauchamp purchased the ticket from the Petro Canada on Cranbrook Street North, according to BCLC.

The lottery corporation says British Columbians have won more than $20 million from the Extra and more than $133 million from the Lotto Max so far this year.

Matching all four Extra numbers gets the top prize of $500,000. The odds of winning that amount are approximately one in 3,764,376, according to BCLC.