Woman almost threw away ‘losing’ lottery ticket in Michigan. Then she looked again

A Michigan woman nearly made an extremely costly mistake but was saved by a second glance, state lottery officials said.

The 30-year-old Clinton County woman bought a pair of Sizzling Hot 7 tickets at a gas station in Ovid but didn’t realize, even after scratching both off, that one of them was a jackpot winner, Michigan Lottery officials said in a March 6 news release.

“I scratched the tickets when I got in my car and thought they were both non-winners, so I put them in a bag with some other garbage to throw away,” she told lottery officials.

She was about to toss $1 million in the trash, likely to be lost forever, but decided to take a closer look at the tickets.

“When I saw I’d won $1 million, my heart started racing and I thought I was going to faint. I called my mom and my husband right away to tell them the good news!” she said. “I am so glad I decided to look the ticket over again before throwing it away.”

The woman picked up her prize at lottery headquarters and opted for a $693,000 lump payment instead of 30 annual payments totaling the full amount, the release said.

She told officials she plans to buy a home and invest the remaining winnings.

Ovid is about 30 miles northeast of Lansing.

This story was originally published March 6, 2023 at 9:26 AM with the headline "Woman almost threw away ‘losing’ lottery ticket in Michigan. Then she looked again."