Lottery player called his prize amount ‘weird.’ Turns out, he won the jackpot

A “sense of relief” fell over a Michigan man and his wife after he won a jackpot lottery prize.

The man, from Alpena County, told Michigan Lottery officials he picked up a 50X Wild Time scratch-off ticket at a convenience store in Alpena during his morning routine.

What awaited him was a “life-changing” prize.

“Each morning, I buy a newspaper, coffee, and one lottery ticket,” the man told lottery officials in an April 14 news release. “When I scratched the ticket off, all I could think when I scratched the prize amount was: ‘Well, that’s weird.’”

He had won one of the game’s four jackpot prizes of $500,000.

“I told my wife right away and we both just felt a sense of relief come over us,” the winner told lottery officials. “This means so much to our family and will really take financial pressure off of us.”

He said he plans to pay bills with his winnings, using the rest for savings.

Alpena is about 250 miles northwest from Detroit.

This story was originally published April 14, 2025 at 2:23 PM with the headline "Lottery player called his prize amount ‘weird.’ Turns out, he won the jackpot."