Lottery player’s wife wakes him after checking Michigan ticket. ‘Couldn’t believe it’
.jpg "The married Kalamazoo County man won a jackpot of more than $626,000, according to Michigan officials.")
After remaining loyal to the same special numbers for over two decades, a Michigan lottery player won big, officials say.
The 56-year-old Kalamazoo County man, who has chosen to stay anonymous, bought the winning ticket for $1 at a Portage gas station in December, lottery officials said in a Jan. 16 news release. He selected the numbers 03-07-10-27-29 on a Fantasy 5 ticket.
“I have been playing this specific set of numbers made up of special dates for about 25 years,” he told lottery officials.
His wife was the first to know — after looking at the results of the Dec. 16 drawing — that his persistence had finally paid off, to the tune of $626,575.
“My wife checked the ticket after the drawing and woke me up right away to tell me the big news,” he said, per the release. “When she said I’d won the jackpot, I couldn’t believe it!”
After making investments and paying for some home improvements, he told officials he plans to share the remaining prize money with his family.
Kalamazoo County is roughly 140 miles west from Detroit.
This story was originally published January 16, 2025 at 9:11 AM with the headline "Lottery player’s wife wakes him after checking Michigan ticket. ‘Couldn’t believe it’."