A lucky resident of Macomb County, Michigan, narrowly missed out on a major windfall one evening. While playing the Fantasy 5 lottery, he managed to match four out of five numbers, winning a modest $100 prize but missing out on a much larger jackpot. Little did he know, fate had something else in store for him the very next day.
He purchased two online tickets for the Fantasy 5 drawing, and when the results came in, he was stunned to discover he had matched all five numbers, winning a whopping $795,905 jackpot. The 53-year-old man, who chose to remain anonymous, revealed that he regularly participates in the Fantasy 5 lottery whenever the jackpot surpasses $250,000.
The winning email from the Lottery initially informed him of a $1 win, which seemed unremarkable. However, a subsequent email encouraged him to log into his account, where he found nearly $800,000 pending. At first, he suspected a scam, but upon claiming the prize at the Lottery office, the reality of his fortune sunk in.
“What’s crazy is the night before I matched four out of five numbers on my Fantasy 5 ticket and thought: ‘I was so close!’ I was excited to win $100 but bummed that I was one number off a large jackpot prize. I never could have imagined then that the next night I would actually win the jackpot!” he shared with CBS News. He plans to invest his winnings wisely.
In another fortunate event in Michigan, a woman from Oakland County claimed a $1 million prize through the Michigan Lottery’s Hamilton game. She and her husband frequently play lottery games together, and she expressed her delight at their unexpected win. “When we scratched off our Hamilton ticket and saw we won $1 million, we were ecstatic! We always had a feeling the day would come where we won big, and it’s a blessing that it really happened!” she told MLive. Instead of an annuity, she opted for a lump-sum payment of $693,000 and plans to purchase a new car and save the remaining funds.
