Grandpa wins $16.7M

UPDATE: 3:15 p.m.

Kelowna's Clifford Britch is B.C.’s newest millionaire.

The 70-year-old man could hardly believe it when he found out he won, while grocery shopping at Save-On-Foods in West Kelowna.

“I buy $10 jackpots from time to time and one was a dud so I dumped it in the trash, the second one popped up and it looked like $1,600,” he said. “I looked at it twice and said ‘oh that is $16,000.'”

He yelled over to his wife, who he's been married to for 45 years, and told her they had just won $16,000.

He turned the ticket over at the kiosk and that is when his whole world changed.

“That’s not 16,000 that is $16 million,” he recalls.

The entire store came rushing over to look at the ticket and to try and get some good luck from Britch by rubbing him.

Britch had no idea that the ticket was a winner.

“I am not one to have hunches,” he said. “You can’t win if you don’t buy.”

Britch was accompanied by his wife when he went to claim his winnings in Vancouver. He also has a son, a daughter and six grandchildren.

“This is going to be a family affair,” he said.

What does Britch, who is now retired, plan to do with the winnings?

“Our lives have been pretty decent to this point and turn so we plan to carry on but it will obviously be embellished with the winnings,” he said.

“To be honest it will probably have more impact on our grandkids than it will have on us,” he said.

Britch said he will also look into some charity that he would like to donate to.

The winning ticket was purchased at the Orchard Park Shopping Centre in Kelowna.

ORIGINAL: 12:30 p.m.

Kelowna's mystery millionaire will be revealed this afternoon in Vancouver.

The winner of the Nov. 22 $16.7 million prize will claim the cash Wednesday afternoon at 2 p.m.

BCLC says the winner is from Kelowna and is excited to celebrate what he calls the $16.7 million ‘icing on the cake’.