Calgary

2 Calgarians win millions in separate lottery draws

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Mike Manhas and Cheryl Hunter both found themselves a great deal richer recently

Calgarian Mike Manhas won $1 million in the May 25 Lotto Max draw. (Western Canada Lottery Corporation)

Southeast Calgary's Mike Manhas got good news when he checked his Lotto Max ticket.

He ran it through his Western Canada Lottery Corporation app following the May 25 draw for $1 million.

It said he'd won.

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That seemed a little too good to be true, so Manhas checked it again — and again, and again.

"I must have checked it six or eight times. I couldn't believe it," he said in a statement issued Tuesday by the lotto corporation. "Finally, I took it in to have a cashier check it for me.

"I checked it once more, a few days later, just to be sure."

'No more renting'

There was no mistake. Manhas was $1 million richer.

"I never thought I would win the lottery," he said in the press release. "I always hoped for it, but I never thought it would happen."

Now that he's a confirmed million-dollar winner, Manhas has to figure out how to spend it.

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"I'm going to buy a house — no more renting," the statement said.

"And this is going to help me set up my kids' future. That's a great feeling."

Cashier's mistake turns to $2.5M

A week earlier on May 19, Cheryl Hunter went into a Shell station in northwest Calgary and asked for a Lotto Max ticket, the same as Manhas.

The cashier messed up and pushed the Lotto 6/49 button by mistake.

"He apologized for printing the wrong ticket, but I told him I would take it anyway," she said in the lottery corporation's release.

Calgary resident Cheryl Hunter bought a Lotto 6/49 by accident, after an error by a Shell cashier. It turned out to be worth $2.5 million. (Western Canada Lottery Corporation)

The ticket soon turned into $2.5 million.

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"When I first checked my ticket, I thought I had won $2,500," Hunter said. "Then I thought it was $250,000.

"I never thought I would win more than that — I'm still not sure I believe it."

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