Two Ponoka men win 100K lottery draws days apart

Ponoka, Alta. must be built on a lucky charm, because two recent Extra lottery winners both call the central Alberta town home.

Kenneth Novotney bought a ticket at the Reddi Mart at 4509 39 Ave. in Ponoka on Nov. 23. He claimed a $100,000 prize by matching the last six numbers of the winning Extra number for the Nov.25 Lotto Max draw, which were 5870603.

Novotney discovered he won at a local lottery retailer's ticket checker, when he saw a bunch of zeroes show up on the machine.

“I said to the store clerk, ‘Hey, I won some money!" Novotney recalled. . "He scanned my ticket and said, 'yeah, you did! But, I don't have enough money to pay you that," he said.

After he was done pumping his gas, Novotney called his wife and told her the good news.

"She was super-excited for me," said Novotney.

He said he plans to pay some bills and put some money on his mortgage.

A second Ponoka man, Ronald Klinger won $100,000 in the Nov. 30 Lotto 6/49 draw.

Klinger bought his ticket from Husky at 5702 Highway 2A in Ponoka, on the day of the draw. The next day, in the same store, he discovered he was a winner by using the store's self-checker.

"It was hard to see the zeroes," Klinger said.

Ronald Klinger bought his ticket from Husky at 5702 Highway 2A in Ponoka, on the day of the draw.

He was so rattled, he scanned the ticket one more time before telling his parents the good news.

Klinger won by matching the last six numbers of the winning Extra number: 1577858.

He said he plans to relax and pay some bills with the winnings.

"The pressure is off," he said. "It's nice not having to worry about money."