'My dream was to build a town,' B.C. man says after winning the lottery

Clarke Sexsmith is seen in a photo from BCLC.

VANCOUVER — He's a long way away from being able to afford his true dream, but a B.C. man is still celebrating after a recent lottery win.

Clarke Sexsmith found himself $500,000 richer after purchasing a Lotto Max ticket late last month in Chilliwack.

He matched four out of four numbers to win the Lotto Max Extra prize, something that only became clear to him after he found his reading glasses.

He ended up checking the ticket twice, at different locations, just to be sure.

While in line at the second spot, Sexsmith's wife called.

"She asked me what I was doing. When I told her that I thought I won on my lottery ticket she did not believe me," he said in a statement issued by the B.C. Lottery Corporation.

Sexsmith is a man with big dreams. He said he'd told people in his life if he ever won big, he'd invest the money with a particular project in mind.

"My dream was to build a town," he said.

His half-million-dollar win won't be enough to meet that goal, but he told BCLC he still plans to invest most of it.

He said he'll keep his celebrations low-key.

The approximate odds of winning the top prize in the Lotto Max draw are one in 33,294,800. BCLC says the odds of winning the Extra prize, as Sexsmith did, are still low, at one in 3,764,376.