Rochester woman's sleepless night becomes Powerball dream come true

SOUTHFIELD, Mich. (FOX 2) - Deborah Bates doesn't play Powerball all the time. But on Dec. 14, she was having a hard time falling asleep and was playing on her phone - and that turned into a dream come true.

Bates, 65, won $500,000 in the Dec. 14 Powerball drawing and discovered her fortune in the middle of the night. The Rochester woman said she doesn't play Powerball very often and bought a ticket for the drawing on MichiganLottery.com. 

She couldn't sleep and decided to play on her phone for a bit to rest her mind and she got the email.

Oakland County man didn't want to cause scene in store after winning $557K Michigan Lottery prize

"I play Powerball every once in a while, and usually check the results the morning after the drawing," said Bates. "I couldn’t sleep one night, so I was playing on my phone, when an email from the Lottery came through that said: ‘Your winnings have arrived.’

She mated four white balls and the Powerball – 36-51-59-66-68 PB:25 and won a $50,000 prize. But she also bought a Power Play, multiplying her winnings to half of a million dollars.

"When I logged in to my Lottery account and saw my account balance was $500,000, I couldn’t believe it! I woke my husband up and had him look everything over to make sure it was real. It still hasn’t sunk in that I won!"c

Oakland County man didn't want to cause scene in store after winning $557K Michigan Lottery prize

She claimed her prize recently and said she plans to save the money.

The Powerball jackpot was last won in November and is currently at $473 million.