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- A Michigan man who forgot he bought a lottery ticket ended up winning $430,194.
- He didn’t remember until he got an email from lottery officials notifying him that he had won.
- Read more crazy lottery stories here.
A 56-year-old man from Ingham County, Michigan got quite the surprise recently when he sat down for breakfast and checked his emails.
“I usually buy a few Fantasy 5 tickets at the store and a few online,” the anonymous winner told Michigan Lottery officials. “I checked my in-store tickets Sunday night and thought I didn’t win anything this drawing, forgetting about my online tickets.
“I was scrolling through my emails Monday morning while I was eating breakfast and saw a prize notification email from the Michigan Lottery. After reading the email, I knew it had to be a big prize. I logged in to my Lottery account to verify the prize and was stunned when I saw the amount pending. I woke my wife up right away to tell her what we’d won!”
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His winning numbers? 05-10-18-20-23.
He says he plans to use the money for some home renovations, share it with his family, and donate some.
He wasn’t the only unlikely lottery winner
Meanwhile in Virginia, Jalen Taylor of Charlottesville recently won $52,000 in a Pick 3 drawing.
Taylor pulled off the big win by purchasing 104 identical tickets, all with the same three-digit combination of 9-6-0.
Trying the same strategy in January, Taylor won another $80,000 lottery prize by buying 160 identical tickets with the winning combination of 5-4-2.
“I had a feeling,” Taylor told Virginia Lottery officials. “When you get a feeling, just play!”
He says he intends to invest and save his winnings.
Last November, a woman in Norfolk, Virginia purchased 40 identical tickets for a single lottery drawing and ended up winning $108,000.
That same month, a man in Virginia purchased 20 identical lottery tickets online with a top prize each of $5,000 and won $100,000.
In December of 2020, another Virginia man bought 160 lottery tickets, all with the exact same numbers on them and won a whopping $800,000.