A 30-year-old woman from Clinton County, Michigan, won $1 million playing the Michigan Lottery’s Sizzling Hot 7’s instant scratch game but her story may have ended differently.

The Second Check Saved the Day

Speaking to the lottery officials, the woman who chose to claim her prize without letting the lottery reveal her identity, explained that there was a high chance for the winning ticket to have ended up in the trash and the prize to be lost after she initially believed the ticket had won nothing.

“I always play the new instant tickets when they come out each month,” she said, noting that one night while at the store she decided to buy two Sizzling Hot 7’s tickets as it was a newer lottery game. She bought the tickets at Hansen’s Quik Stop in Ovid, a small city located 30 miles northeast of Lansing almost entirely within Clinton County.

After buying the lottery tickets, she got back into her car and scratched them but somehow decided they were both non-winners and placed them in a bag with other garbage to be thrown away. Lucky for her, she did not throw that bag the same night.

“The next morning, I decided to look the tickets over one more time before throwing them away,” the lucky player continued with her story, outlining that as soon as she realized one of the tickets had won $1 million, her heart started racing and she thought she would faint. The next thing she did was to call her mom and husband and tell them the good news

I am so glad I decided to look the ticket over again before throwing it away.

A statement by the lottery winner

Buying a Home, Investing for the Future

The lucky woman chose to collect her winnings in one lump sum of around $693,000, instead of taking the $1 million in 30 installments. She shared with the lottery officials that she would use the money to buy a home and invest.

Relatively new, the Sizzling Hot 7’s scratch ticket game offers $10 tickets and allows players to win prizes from $10 to $1 million. The lottery game has paid out more than $15 million since its launch in January.

Her story resembles the story of a woman from Massachusetts who in 2021 prematurely threw away a lottery ticket at the convenience store she had bought it only for the son of the store owner to check the ticket after that, see that it won $1 million and take it back to the lucky player.