Man forgets he already bought lottery ticket, so he buys another. He won twice as much

A 67-year-old man who likes to play the Fantasy 5 lottery game could not remember if he had already bought a ticket for a recent drawing in Michigan.

He didn’t want to miss his chance at a big win, so while at a gas station, he decided to buy a ticket “to be safe,” according to a Jan. 17 news release from the Michigan Lottery.

It wasn’t long before the man realized he actually already did buy a ticket for the same Dec. 17 drawing earlier that day, officials said.

“After the drawing, I was on the Michigan Lottery website checking the numbers and when I saw the two locations where winning tickets were sold, I knew I had to be the big winner,” he told lottery officials. “I checked my tickets and confirmed I had won.”

The winning numbers for that night’s Fantasy 5 Double Play drawing were 06-11-12-16-29 — numbers the Montcalm County man had on both of his tickets.

“I have been playing Fantasy 5 for a long time and I always play the same sets of numbers,” he said in the release.

The man won $110,000 on each ticket for a combined $220,000, officials said.

He plans to use the prize money to renovate his home and share with family, according to the release.

The winning tickets were sold at Sheridan EZ Mart and a Mobil gas station in Sheridan, about 45 miles northeast of Grand Rapids.

This story was originally published January 18, 2023 at 2:42 PM with the headline "Man forgets he already bought lottery ticket, so he buys another. He won twice as much."