Michigan Lottery tells man he didn't win after a website said he did

(WJBK) - Back in February Walter Facen bought a lottery ticket at a Redford BP station.

He picked the numbers, waited and soon found out he won more than $1 million dollars - or so he thought.

"It would have put us ahead for a good while," he said. "I was going to pay off my kid's tuitions, student loans, do a little renovation around here and do some things for my wife."

Who hasn't fantasized about that moment - winning the lottery. Fantasy turned reality for Walter Facen - well, maybe. That February 24th jackpot was for $1.25 million.

He checked the numbers on a site called www.lotteryusa.com. He showed FOX 2 the paperwork to prove the sites numbers matched his. 

Then he took his assumed golden ticket to the Michigan Lottery office in Detroit. "She looked at the ticket but said it wasn't a winning ticket - that what she told us."

The website he used is the second to come up on Google, and looks very legitimate but in a disappointing letter from the Michigan Lottery Office in Lansing, Facen learned it's a third party site that screwed up the numbers. 

Facen went from the highest high to the lowest low.

"Of course I was upset but I didn't act a fool, I just said this isn't right," he said.

The Michigan Lottery tells FOX 2 that players have to check the official lottery site - MichiganLottery.com and there is nothing they can do for him, because he's not a winner. 

"I felt like I've been cheated out of $1.25 million," he said.