Man wakes his fiancée to share big Michigan lottery news. ‘But she didn’t believe me’

A 23-year-old fiancé tried a new strategy while playing the Powerball in Michigan earlier this month — and it paid off big time. He just couldn’t get his fiancée to believe him.

“I play Powerball about once a month and I’ve always played easy pick numbers but decided to pick my own numbers for the first time,” Eric Graf told Michigan Lottery officials. “I logged into my Lottery account a few hours after the drawing and couldn’t believe what I was seeing when I saw a $150,000 balance.”

The Jackson man matched four white balls and the Powerball in the Nov. 5 drawing, according to a Nov. 16 news release. That technically qualified him for a $50,000 prize.

But because Graf added the Power Play option, his winnings were multiplied by three for a grand prize of $150,000.

“I woke my (fiancée) up to tell her the good news, but she didn’t believe me,” he told lottery officials. “It took about a day for it to set in that I had really won. It is a crazy feeling!”

Graf plans to buy a home and go on a vacation with his newfound cash, according to the release. After state and federal taxes, he got around $107,625.

His winning ticket was sold online at MichiganLottery.com.

Jackson is about 80 miles west of Detroit.

This story was originally published November 16, 2022 at 1:19 PM with the headline "Man wakes his fiancée to share big Michigan lottery news. ‘But she didn’t believe me’."