‘I didn’t think I had it:’ Sask. man wins million-dollar prize

Bradley Nyhus had a $1-million winning ticket on his table for a few weeks — he just didn’t know it.

Nyhus, who ranches near Ceylon, has been buying scratch-and-win tickets for about 40 years and purchased another set from the Co-op gas station in Radville.

“Every week I go in there Friday morning. I stop in and I get two and the lady who sold them to me, I always say to her, ‘Geez, I’d like to win once.’ I said (that) to her and I guess my once (has) come,” Nyhus said Thursday at the Hotel Saskatchewan.

“I had gone from the bingos and the crosswords (games) because they were getting complicated and I thought I was going to miss something. So I went for the Set for Lifes because they’re easy to see — but I guess I missed it anyways.”

He scratched the ticket but didn’t even notice that he had a winner in his hands.

“Somehow I missed that I had a winner. I had seen that I had two five-dollar (icons) there and thought I’d maybe win five bucks, but nothing,” Nyhus said. “I always double-check my tickets and it probably sat on my table for two to four weeks unsigned, uncashed for a million dollars on my table.”

Nyhus took the winning ticket, along with five other ones, to the Weyburn Co-op when he needed to get gas.

“I think the fifth one I put in came up 1,000,000.00 and I’m like, ‘This has to be an error code,’ ” Nyhus said. “I was just dumbfounded because I didn’t think I had it.

“I didn’t say anything. I didn’t know what to do. I was kind of panicky. I just wanted to get my name on the ticket.”

Nyhus said he doesn’t have many plans when it comes to spending the $1 million.

“I’ve got three daughters and they’re all paying off student debt yet so I want to pay that off,” Nyhus said. “I wouldn’t mind going to travel to some sports games or something like that so maybe do that and then maybe invest the rest.”