B.C. lotto winner's wife thought he'd been scammed

B.C. lottery winner Chad Matty is shown in an image from BCLC.

A recent lottery winner had to assure his wife his prize of hundreds of thousands of dollars actually existed.

Chad Matty said he was at his Port Coquitlam, B.C., home when he found out he'd won.

"My wife asked me if it was a scam," he said in a news release earlier this week from the B.C. Lottery Corporation.

He, too, struggled to accept that he was suddenly $500,000 richer.

"It's hard to believe it's real until you have the money in hand," Matty said.

His prize came from the Daily Grand draw on Aug. 4, the main prizes in which offer winners a lump sum or several cash installments.

Matty didn't win the main or secondary prize but instead won the "Extra," another chance to win for $1 on top of the price of a ticket.

The odds of winning the top Extra prize by matching all four numbers are one in 3,764,376.