‘I Didn’t Believe It Was Real’: Michigan Man Who Assumed He Won $5 in Lottery Gets Huge Surprise

A man in Macomb County, Michigan, got the surprise of a lifetime recently, and it has significantly boosted his bank account.

When the anonymous man got an alert from the state’s lottery, he thought it would be a $5 or $100 prize. However, his life was about to change in a big way, Fox 2 reported on Thursday.

The 52-year-old matched the Lotto 47 numbers on August 17 after buying a ticket online. Once he checked the alert, he realized he had won the $4.57 million Lotto 47 jackpot, the Michigan Lottery explained.

He said he has only been playing that particular Lotto for a year and has received notifications for prizes in smaller amounts.

“When I saw I had won the $4.57 million jackpot, I didn’t believe it was real at first. I showed my wife the prize amount and we were both taken aback! It has taken awhile for us to wrap our heads around it,” he commented.

During his visit to Lottery headquarters, the man decided to take his prize as a one-time lump sum payment of approximately $3.1 million.

He now has several ideas of what to do with the money. “With his winnings, he plans to donate to charities, take his family on a vacation, and then save the remainder,” the state’s lottery noted.

In April 2021, a Michigan man who had fallen on hard times won $2 million with a scratch-off lottery ticket, Breitbart News reported.

“Last year, I lost everything in a flood, so to win this prize is so overwhelming to me,” he said.

“I never play $20 tickets, but when I stopped to pick up a couple things on my way to pick up my kids the Lucky 7’s ticket caught my eye. Seven is a lucky number for me, so I decided to take a chance and bought the ticket,” he added.

A similar situation happened to another man in Michigan. He bought a winning $1 million lottery ticket for himself and his wife, whom he had recently married, according to a 2023 Breitbart News article.