Dave Harper may be a millionaire, but that doesn’t mean he’s about to quit his job driving a front-load garbage packer for General Waste Management.

Rather, the winner of the $3.5-million Dec. 17 Lotto 649 draw has stayed on the job since he won, and doesn’t have any plans to leave.

He also has no plans to depart the territory he’s called home since 1970, when he moved here as a boy with his parents.

Part of the $3.5 million will be spent on his Marsh Lake home.

As the 47-year-old told reporters this morning at a Whitehorse press conference, while he took a break from work, he wants to put a new roof on his house.

He’s also looking to pay off bills to be debt-free, then “save the rest and just forget about it” to ensure it’s there for his daughters, ages 22 and 24.

“That’s who I’m thinking about,” Harper said.

It doesn’t take long after winning that you find out who your real friends are and who acquaintances are, he has learned.

Already, he said, there’s been a number of people coming “out of the woodwork.”

It’s those “real friends”, he said, who he’ll buy a beer for.

He noted he’s taken advice from those long-time trusted friends who have told him to keep working after winning and think long-term about the money.

He admits the windfall is not without its temptations; though looking at a $65,000 truck, he nearly “blew a gasket” when he saw the price tag, he said.

His work income will give him some “play money,” and it’s a good job he enjoys and which gives him something to do with his time.

Harper won the $3.5 million after picking up a $20 Super Pack at Takhini Gas off the Mayo Road.

The pack included the winning Quick Pick Lotto 649 ticket along with quick picks for the Lotto Max, Western 649 and Western Max draws.

Picking up the Super Pack on a Wednesday in December, Harper went online to check his ticket the next day and didn’t quite believe it when all the Lotto 649 winning numbers – 2, 5, 15, 20, 38 and 39 – matched his ticket.

“I saw I matched the first number, then the first two, then the first three – so I figured I won something,” he said.

“Then I saw the fourth and the fifth, and then the sixth number. I put the ticket down, wandered around and came back to check it again.”

He eventually opted to head out to the gas station in McCrae to get his ticket checked and confirm that he was indeed a big winner.

“I scanned it at the ticket checker a couple of times, then waited for the line to thin out and gave it to the clerk to check,” Harper said.

He added with a laugh, “He didn’t know what to do – he talked to the owner, then came back and said they didn’t have $3.5 million on the premises.”

Harper headed to his truck, locked the door and sat there in disbelief, he recalled. He tried to text a friend but couldn’t.

“It’s, honestly, surreal,” he said, adding he’s still waiting to wake up and find out it’s all been a dream.

With Lotteries Yukon unable to dole out a prize that enormous, Harper travelled to Edmonton to claim the prize.

Immediately after that, he enjoyed shooting at the range inside the West Edmonton Mall.

Harper’s is the third lottery ticket to make Yukoners millionaires. In 2013, a group of eight co-workers in Faro won $25 million with a Lotto Max ticket.

Eight years earlier, Scott McCarthy of Whitehorse won $1 million with a Set for Life ticket.