WINNIPEG — A Winnipeg man and his mother are $5 million richer after winning a Lotto 6/49 prize last month.
Bahadur Sultani and his mother, Aghdas Mehdizadeh say they won their prize with a set of numbers that have a “very special meaning to them,” according to the Western Canada Lottery media release sent Tuesday.
“Years ago, after my sister passed away, she came to me in a dream and gave me the numbers 40, 41, 1 and 15,” Sultani said. “When I told my mom about the dream, she told me I should play the lottery; that maybe the numbers would bring me good luck.”
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Sultani said he asked his mother for the remaining numbers.
“I always call my mom and get the last two numbers from her,” he said. “This time she picked 5 and 10. And that’s it – we won $5.3 million.”
Sultani is a truck driver, and he bought the ticket while travelling through Alberta. He purchased it from the Fas Gas service station located at B-7960 50th Ave. in Red Deer, Alta.
The winning numbers for the Dec. 28 draw were 1, 5, 10, 15, 40 and 41.
“I checked the ticket on my way back to Winnipeg,” he said. “At first I thought it said $5,000. Then, I looked again and thought it must be $50,000, or maybe half a million dollars.”
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Sultani was stunned when the store clerk told him that he had won $5.3 million.
“I kept saying, ‘I won something – I actually won something,’” he said. “I couldn’t believe it.”
The happy winners already have a few plans for this windfall, including a move to British Columbia for Mehdizadeh and the perfect “monster truck” for Sultani.
“First things first: I’m going to make my mom happy,” he said.“I think that’s the smart thing to do.”
The winners also plan to donate some of their winnings to help the less fortunate.