Murray Wallace won $675,000 in Set for Life. (submitted photo/BC Lottery Corp.)

By Pete McIntyre

Set for life

No joke: prankster wins lottery prize

Mar 13, 2023 | 10:47 AM

A trucker from Salmon Arm thought he was being pranked when he found out he was a lottery prize winner.

Murray Wallace wondered if it was a joke when he discovered he won $675,000 playing Set for Life.

“I said, ‘where are the cameras?’ I thought someone had to be pranking me because I am a big prankster myself and prank all of my friends and family,” Wallace said.

Wallace was driving his truck through Kamloops when he bought a Set for Life ticket from the BVD Truck Stop. He was at Sutherland’s Bakery in Enderby when he decided to validate his ticket.

“I scanned it on the self-checker and then it began flashing ‘winner’ so I started freaking out. At that point, people started gathering around and I wasn’t sure how much I’d won yet.”

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Once he realized the prize amount, the first person he told was his spouse.

“She thought it was another one of my pranks and even hung the phone up on me twice. Then, she came inside the store and once she saw my face she believed me and we just hugged. It was amazing,” Wallace recalled.

The Salmon Arm resident plans to have a big pig roast with family and friends to celebrate and looks forward to returning to his birthplace of Scotland to see family.

He summed up his thought on winning with a few words.

“Absolutely surreal, emotional and euphoric,” he said.