RED DEER — Dave Johnston is kicking himself for pulling out of a lottery pool that’s about to cash in a lucky ticket for $30 million.
The steamfitting instructor at Red Deer College in central Alberta used to play regularly with plumbing teachers he sat with in the school’s lunchroom every day.
But he pulled out over a year ago.
“It’s hard to stay in,” said Johnston, who added he kept putting in his cash but the pool wasn’t winning big. He eventually decided it just wasn’t going to happen.
“And then it does.”
Seven of the plumbers won last week’s Lotto 6-49 jackpot. The men, each set to pocket about $4.3 million, are to be officially introduced at a Western Canada Lottery Corp. news conference Thursday.
Johnston said he found the plumbers hugging each other and dancing around soon after they realized they had the winning numbers.
“I walked over and said, ’What did you do? Win a hundred bucks?”’
Johnston said he was happy to learn his co-workers were new millionaires. And he offered them a quick proposal.
“I said, ’Well, if each of you give me a $100,000 then I can retire too.’
“I thought I’d throw it out there,” Johnston said. “I didn’t have any bites.”
Johnston said he’s not upset, and his family isn’t blaming him either.
“It’s just one of those things. If it was meant to be, it would be. That’s all.”