Rocky Mountain House resident Darcy Schmidek is $100,000 richer after scratching an instant ticket.

He purchased his ticket in Rocky Mountain House early on September 12. Immediately after purchasing his ticket, Schmidek scratched his ticket and knew he was a winner; but wasn’t sure how much he won.

“I played the crossword and thought I had nine words, not ten, so I took it to the terminal to have it checked, then everything went off,” Schmidek recalled as he claimed his prize. He had won the game’s top prize!“I was in shock,” he said.“It still feels surreal.”

The happy winner has a few plans for his recent windfall.

“I’m going to pay off my holiday trailer and put some money on our mortgage,”he said. “It feels pretty awesome.”