A Vernon senior’s faithful lottery purchases over the years finally paid off, to the tune of $5 million.
Robert Jaeger is the winner of the April 9 Lotto 6/49, which he picked up from Kamloops Thursday (thanks to his grandson for driving him down).
Jaeger, who is 90 years old, buys lottery tickets all the time, usually 10 weeks at a time and he always gets them from Kirby’s Kiosk in the Shops at Polson Park.
“I go there all the time, probably for the last 15 years,” said Jaeger, a father of two children, three grandchildren and two step grandkids.
But it wasn’t until Jaeger sat down at breakfast with Wednesday’s issue of The Morning Star that he found he was holding a winning ticket.
“I picked up the paper that day and I saw the first number was 12, I thought, ‘Holy smokes, I’ve got a 12.”
He checked again and discovered he had all the winning numbers.
“I was so surprised, I thought I was dreaming.”
Jaeger doesn’t have any special plans yet for his winnings, which he might sit on for a bit.
“I’m going to share a little bit with the family and the other I’m going to put in the bank. I haven’t decided yet (what to do with it).”
And he might have a little fun with some of it.
“I might be foolish with a bit,” he grinned.