Man assumes he won $5 from Michigan Lottery -- he really won $4.57 million

MACOMB COUNTY, Mich. (FOX 2) - A Macomb County man said he thought an alert from the Michigan Lottery would be a $5 or $10 prize. He couldn't have been more wrong.

The 52-year-old man matched the winning Lotto 47 numbers on Aug. 17 on a ticket he bought online.

"I started playing Lotto 47 about one year ago," he said. "I’ve gotten prize notification emails from the Lottery before for prizes of $5 or $100, so when I got one after the drawing, I assumed I’d won one of those amounts."

It wasn't $10 or even $100.

"When I saw I had won the $4.57 million jackpot, I didn’t believe it was real at first. I showed my wife the prize amount and we were both taken aback! It has taken awhile for us to wrap our heads around it," he said.

He chose to receive his prize as a one-time lump sum payment of about $3.1 million rather than annuity payments for the full amount. With his winnings, he plans to donate to charities, take his family on a vacation, and then save the remainder.