Oakland County man wins $4 million in scratch-off, ignores it for months
Photo: Michigan Lottery
WATERFORD, Mich. (FOX 2) - An Oakland County man said every time he buys a scratch-off ticket, he has a habit of not scratching off the prizes. He says he does it because he likes the surprise when he wins. You can imagine his surprise when he won $4 million a few months ago – but he had no idea.
The anonymous man bought his Millionaire's Club ticket at the Marathon Gas Station on West Walton in Waterford a few months ago. He told the Michigan Lottery that he doesn't scratch off prizes when he buys tickets.
"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," said the player. "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."
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He's got some extra cash now. He bought a Millionaire's Club ticket – and is now an official member of the club. But he found out roughly three months after he won it. He was ready to go about his normal routine of cashing in his winner – but the store wouldn't take it.
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"About three months later, I remembered I still had the ticket, and I took it to the store to cash it. 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!"
He chose to receive the $2.7 million lump sum instead of annuity payments. He said he plans to invest and start a new company.
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