Four months ago, an unidentified Michigan man bought a Money scratch-off ticket at the EZ-Mart in Shepherd. He looked at the numbers, concluded that it wasn’t a winner, and threw it in the center console of his truck.
Good thing he didn’t throw it away.
A week or so ago, the man’s wife asked him to take a few of her tickets to the store to see if any were winners. Noticing his own stack of old tickets in his truck’s console, the man decided to check those as well.
That ticket he didn’t think was a winner? It wound up yielding a $2 million jackpot, which the anonymous man is electing to receive as a lump sum payment of $1.3 million after taxes.
“My wife gave me a few tickets to take to the store and check, so I grabbed the tickets in my center console to double check,” he told Michigan Lottery officials. “When I scanned the Money ticket, I got a message to file a claim at the lottery office. I went back out to my truck to look the ticket over and realized I’d matched number 13. When I revealed the ‘$2 MIL’ symbol underneath, I was speechless. It is a miracle this ticket didn’t end up in the trash!”
‘A nice financial cushion’
While the man’s prize is potentially life-changing, he doesn’t plan to splurge on anything out of the ordinary.
“I don’t plan on making any big purchases with the money, but rather use it as a nice financial cushion for our family,” he said.
Since Money launched in March, Michigan players have won more than $47 million on that game alone. Some $61 million in prizes remain, including two $2 million top prizes.
Photo: Tim Boyle/Getty Images
