Wife doesn’t believe husband’s Michigan lottery win. ‘Am I looking at this wrong?’
A Michigan man was in shock when he saw his Mega Millions ticket was a winner, but he was left in complete disbelief when he saw how much money he had won.
“Am I looking at this wrong?” the St. Clair County man thought as he checked the results for the lottery ticket of the Jan. 7 game.
Ernest Rust was not looking at the prize amount incorrectly, Michigan lottery officials said in a Feb. 13 news release. He had hit the Mega Millions jackpot and won $1 million.
“Every time I buy a ticket, I imagine winning big, but I never thought I would actually be one of the people you read about,” Rust told officials. “To be sitting here claiming $1 million is just staggering.”
Once Rust started to believe he had won the prize, he shared the news with his wife. However, she was skeptical as well.
“I told my wife, and it took her a little while to believe that I was telling the truth,” Rust told lottery officials.
Now, the two are making plans to take a European river cruise to celebrate their big win, the 66-year-old Rust said. He plans to save the remainder for retirement.
St. Clair County is about a 60-mile drive northeast from Detroit.
What to know about Mega Millions
To score the jackpot in the Mega Millions, a player must match all five white balls and the gold Mega Ball. The odds of scoring a jackpot prize are 1 in 302,575,350.
Tickets cost $2 and can be bought on the day of the drawing, but sales times vary by state. Officials have announced they will cost $5 starting in April.
Drawings are held Tuesdays and Fridays at 11 p.m. ET and can be streamed online.
Mega Millions is played in 45 states, Washington, D.C., and the U.S. Virgin Islands.
This story was originally published February 13, 2025 at 10:33 AM with the headline "Wife doesn’t believe husband’s Michigan lottery win. ‘Am I looking at this wrong?’."
