Lottery player was afraid to check MI ticket. When he did, he ‘started screaming’

A 50-year-old man bought a store’s last few tickets for a Michigan lottery game, then discovered he won a huge top prize.

The Wayne County man, who chose to remain anonymous, won big playing the $4,000,000 Winner game, state lottery officials said in a July 9 news release.

When stopping into a market in Ann Arbor, the lucky player noticed none of the three jackpot prizes, each worth $4 million, had been won — so he bought the store’s last three tickets for a shot to win.

At first, he scratched off only the barcodes on the tickets, then scanned them with the lottery app, officials said. One of the tickets triggered a message indicating it was a winner — but how much, the app didn’t say.

“One of the tickets came back with a message to file a claim, so I knew I had to have won one of the big prizes, but I was too nervous to scratch the ticket,” he told lottery officials. “The next day, once I calmed down a bit, I scanned the ticket on the Michigan Lottery app and started screaming when $4 million came up on the screen! It was unreal.”

The man went to lottery headquarters in Lansing and picked up his winnings, officials said, adding that he opted for a $2.7 million lump sum payment instead of the full amount paid out in annual installments.

“With his winnings, he plans to pay off his home, take a trip, and then save the remainder,” officials said.

This story was originally published July 9, 2025 at 1:32 PM with the headline "Lottery player was afraid to check MI ticket. When he did, he ‘started screaming’."