By Doug Ward
A Richmond carpet technician initially forgot that he’d purchased the $5 Lotto Super 7 ticket that would win him $24.6 million and make him the biggest lottery winner in B.C. history.
Tsering Luding, a 39-year-old father of two young children, didn’t check his ticket until Wednesday — five days after the winning number was announced. His wife, Susan, saw a story in the Richmond Review newspaper that day, which said the winning ticket was still unclaimed and had been purchased in Richmond. She asked him to check his ticket. Luding then realized that he’d stuffed the ticket into his wallet.
“She started reading the ticket out, started to shake and panic a little bit,” Luding told reporters during a news conference Thursday in front of the Vancouver Art Galley.
Luding said he had to lie down on the floor while his wife phoned the B.C. Lottery Corporation and got confirmation they had the winning ticket. Then she asked how much her husband had won and began writing the dollar figures on a piece of paper. Luding was amazed by the numbers she was writing down.
“I couldn’t believe it. Like I thought $24,000. Oh, $24,000 — that’s not bad. ” he recalled.
“And then she started adding stuff, and I went: ‘Oh.’ I had to lie back down on the floor again.”
Luding, who works for Easy Care Carpet Cleaners, has lived in Richmond for 30 years. He was born in India and his Tibetan family moved to Canada in 1971. “Anybody can do it,” he said. “To tell you the truth , I had forgotten I even bought the ticket. That’s why it was in my wallet.”
Luding, who overcame odds of one in 62,891,499, described his ticket purchase at the 7-Eleven store as a “fluke.”
“I think I went in to grab some lunch,” recalled Luding. “And when I got my change back, he asked me if I wanted anything else, and I think I just asked for a Quick Pick, and that was it.”
Luding said he had an emotional celebration with his father shortly after learning of his windfall. The winner was so excited he couldn’t sleep and was still awake at 7:30 a.m. Thursday, when lotto officials phoned to arrange the downtown Vancouver news conference where his win was officially announced.
Luding said his family could use the money. “I think my wife was actually calling the bank to extend our line of credit. So she won’t have to do that any more.”
Asked how he will spend his millions, Luding said: “Help my family and friends out a bit. Right now I’m not too sure. Talk it over with the wife, talk it over with my parents, my brothers, and go from there.”
Luding said a new house and car are likely purchases. “I own a house. But my wife would like a nicer one. Our house is about 30 years old.”
Luding, father of a nine-year-old daughter and five-year-old son, bought his winning $5 Lotto Super 7 ticket at the 7-Eleven store at the corner of St. Albans and Granville in Richmond.
“If this can happen to me, it can happen to anybody,” added Luding, saying he had no history of luck, though he’d won a 50/50 draw worth $29 at his son’s hockey game last Sunday.
His win came just days after Coquitlam resident Richard Slawski won more than $12.5 million on the Saturday Lotto 6/49 draw.
