Michigan Man Wins Powerball With Ticket Saved in Wallet for Two Months

A Kent County man walked around with a winning Powerball ticket in his pocket for two months without even knowing it.

With the Powerball jackpot sitting at $760 million, Michigan lottery players have their eyes on a potentially life-changing payday. The Mega Millions jackpot is growing, too, reaching $463 million ahead of tonight's drawing. Powerball players will have to wait until Halloween night for their next shot at the big prize. According to the Michigan Lottery, the combined jackpots total a 'spooktacular' $1.2 billion.

Michael Vander Lugt knows how it feels to win big from the Michigan Lottery. Vander Lugt matched all five white balls in the August 8 drawing, netting him a $1 million prize.

But the Wyoming man didn't realize he'd won until a couple of months later. He tells the Michigan Lottery that he found out he was a winner when he stopped at a convenience store and handed the cashier some Powerball tickets to pay for his purchase. He had no idea that one of the tickets in his wallet was worth a cool million.

“I recently stopped at the party store to get a pop but realized when checking out that I didn’t have enough cash on me,” Vander Lugt said. “Rather than use my card, I handed the cashier a few Powerball tickets from my wallet that I knew I had won at least a few bucks on."

When the cashier scanned one of the tickets, it came up with a message that he needed to file a claim at the Michigan Lottery office. He looked up the winning numbers and discovered he was a millionaire.

"I can’t believe I had this ticket in my wallet for nearly two months not knowing it was worth $1 million.”

He says he plans to use his winnings to pay off his mortgage and invest the rest.