The winning ticket just sat chilling in a drawer for months.
Photo courtesy of Michigan Lottery Connect news release
A man who played the Michigan lottery and saved the winning ticket for when he needed some cash has discovered that it was worth millions — three months later.
An anonymous 59-year-old man from Oakland County was stunned to discover he won $4 million from a Millionaire’s Club ticket he purchased at a gas station months before, the Michigan Lottery said in a May 23 news release.
“When I play instant games, I never scratch off the amounts, even if I win, because I like the surprise of finding out the winning amount when I take it to a store to cash it,” the player said in the news release. “When I scratched my Millionaire’s Club ticket, I saw I won, but per usual, I didn’t scratch the amount. I put the ticket in a drawer to keep it for the next time I needed some extra cash.”
The winning ticket had just been “collecting dust” for three months before the player decided to cash in his winnings — before even checking the amount.
“About three months later, I remembered I still had the ticket, and I took it to the store to cash it,” he said. “I got a message to file a claim at the Lottery office, so I finally scratched the amount. When I saw it was a $4 million winner, I was amazed. I couldn’t even fathom it. It’s been very hard to wrap my head around!”
The man chose to receive a lump sum of around $2.7 million and plans to invest it and start a company.
Oakland County is about a 25-mile drive northwest from Detroit.