Scratching off a winning lottery ticket is exciting enough when you think you have landed a few hundred or a few thousand dollars. Yet, for two lucky lottery players in Michigan, a quick check on their phones turned what looked like modest payouts into life-changing windfalls.
Both winners initially misread their instant scratch-off tickets. They assumed they had won small prizes before the official app scans revealed massive jackpots.
From $5,000 to $2 million in one app scan
For a 61-year-old woman from Ingham County, an ordinary stop for an instant game turned into an unforgettable shock. She visited the USA 2 Go Quick Store at 4495 Holt Road in Holt, Michigan. She paid $30 for a Two Million Dollar Cashword scratcher ticket.
The game is a crossword style puzzle where the player scratches off letters to form complete words for three separate puzzles on the ticket. The more complete words you form, the more money you win.
As our player scratched off the letters, she noticed plenty of completed words on the third puzzle, but she didn’t bother to count them. Checking the prize legend, she assumed she had won a respectable $5,000 prize.
Hoping to confirm her win, she scanned the ticket on the Michigan Lottery mobile app. She was completely shocked to discover she hadn’t won $5,000. Instead, she saw a staggering $2 million top prize appear on her screen!
Even after seeing the seven-figure total on her phone, she still had trouble fully understanding the enormity of her win. It took time to sink in.
“It didn’t start sinking in that this is real until I pulled up to the Lottery office to claim my prize,” she said. “I started shaking and said to myself: ‘This is getting real now!’”
Our winner, who opted to remain anonymous, chose a one-time lump sum payment of approximately $1.3 million rather than annuity payments. She plans to buy a new primary home, purchase a vacation home in Florida, and share her winnings with her family.
Another app scan, another shocking discovery
As we read in our previous story, a quick scan on the Michigan Lottery app turned an ordinary Cashword ticket into a $2 million surprise in Ingham County. Another Michigan player experienced an almost identical “extra zeros” revelation during a beloved family holiday tradition.
A holiday tradition with a few extra zeros
Every Christmas, a 68-year-old man from Macomb County and his wife buy lottery tickets for the entire family. Ahead of last year’s holiday celebration, they purchased 25 Days of Winning instant tickets at M & H Petro LLC, located at 16851 15 Mile Road in Clinton Township. Each ticket cost $10.
At their family Christmas party, their son fanned the tickets out and walked around so each relative could choose one. Once everyone had a ticket, they sat down and began scratching. When someone asked if anyone had won, the 68-year-old casually said he had landed a $500 prize.
That assumption lasted only seconds.
“A family member pulled up the Lottery app and scanned the ticket, and then looked at me and said, ‘Uh, you have a few more zeros than that!’” the anonymous winner recalled. “I couldn’t believe it when they told me it was a $500,000 winner!”
The Macomb County resident held onto the ticket for nearly a year before visiting lottery headquarters recently to claim his prize. He plans to save his winnings and use the money as a financial cushion.
More unbelievable lottery wins to explore
If you love reading about unexpected windfalls and shocking ticket reveals, explore more stories from our Lottery Winners archive.
You can read about another Great Lakes State surprise in Michigan lottery player accidentally wins $1.05 million, where an Oakland County resident landed a seven-figure payout unintentionally. Or you can find out whether timing impacts your odds of winning in When is the best time to buy a lottery ticket?.