A Michigan man who noticed only two Diamond 7s scratch-off lottery tickets were left at his local store decided to buy both of them and won the $4 million top prize.
The 42-year-old Macomb County man told Michigan Lottery officials he went to the Meijer store in Bad Axe to cash in some small prizes from previous scratch-off tickets.
"I like playing the $20 and $30 instant tickets and I had a few of them to cash while I was at the store one day," the player said. "When I got up to the counter, I saw there were only two Diamond 7s tickets left, so I purchased them both. I scratched the barcodes and had the clerk scan them right away. When one of them gave a message to file a claim, I started scratching it off at the counter with the clerk."
The man said he was stunned to reveal the $4 million top prize.
"As soon as I scratched the winning symbol and saw '4MIL' underneath, I grabbed the ticket and ran out of the store. I was in complete shock," he said.
The player said some of his winnings will go toward buying a home.
"Winning is such a blessing, I still can't believe it's real," he said.
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Good for him!
Talk about ending the year good
Eyes popped out when I read he gave the ticket to the clerk to check. Good thing clerk was honest, though it might be a newer machine where the amount won shows.
In any case a nice way to finish off the year. Congratulations to him.
There are still people who believe that the 20 and 30 dollar ticket "big money" prizes are always on the first 5 tickets of a new roll. For years I have thought that to be ridiculous. This guy just proved that was always a bogus theory.
The ticket does not show 7 as awinning number in it's group of numbers at the top of f the ticket, so perhaps he posted the losing ticket, since he bought the last 2 tickets.
It wasn't the number "7" that had to be matched.
It was an instant win "7" symbol.
Zoom in on the ticket. You will see the instructions.
Scanners generally give off a chime of some sort when a winning ticket is scanned, whether a small win or jackpot, or in between.
Congrats to the lucky guy, enjoy and Happy New Year.
what I WANT TO KNOW IS, WHAT IS THIS STORE, meijer, GOING TO DO WITH THE $50,000 it gets? you could probably be <snip> sure no employees will share in the windfall....
I've bought the last few tickets in a roll many times but I've never hit a major prize.
congrats
I'm loving this story, aw great job. Pure luck right there, last 1 or 2 left? wow.
Congrats. This is definitely Middle-Age Man's $$$Blessing to enjoy it for decades still to come, utilize it wisely. Invest...$$$
and GOOD LUCK TO ALL PLAYERS
at Lottery Post, all states, hope you all win some cold hard cash, this winter and beyond. Good night .
I have always wondered why some state's lottery redact the numbers on the bottom of the ticket. That was definitely a nice big win