Michigan man misses out on jackpot by just one digit. Then, he wins $800,000 the very next day

Sometimes people hit the jackpot when they're least expecting it, and at times they miss out even after coming close. Something like that happened to a 53-year-old from Macomb County in Michigan, who wasn't feeling so lucky after missing out on the jackpot of the state’s Fantasy 5 lottery by just one digit, according to the Michigan Lottery. But things completely turned around for him the very next day, when he bagged a $800,000 prize.

Unbelievable Turn of Events

The man, who chose to remain anonymous, became the biggest winner of the Fantasy 5 draw with a stroke of luck. According to the news release on the lottery's website, he matched the winning numbers 2-5-17-21-30 which netted him the jackpot of $795,905 after deductions. However, for a prize amount of more than $5,000, the Michigan Lottery is required to deduct 24% for federal taxes and 4.25% for state taxes, which left him with $224,843, according to Business Insider.

"I always buy Fantasy 5 tickets if the jackpot is over $250,000," the man told the lottery. While it was a regular thing for the man to buy lottery tickets, he had forgotten to do so on the day that he won, and "logged onto MichiganLottery.com and bought two." Luckily, one of those two tickets turned out to be the big winner. However, he had no idea how much he had won. "After the drawing, I saw an email from the lottery that said I had won $1 in the drawing. I thought that was all I’d won until another email came through telling me to log into my account to claim my prize," he shared as part of the release. 

After logging on to the website, he realized that he had won the jackpot but it still wasn't enough for him to believe it. "My first thought was that it was a scam," he said. He only accepted the reality once he got to the lottery office to claim the prize.

It turns out that it wasn't the first time the man had won a prize from the same lottery game. The persistent player nearly missed the lottery jackpot just a day before clinching the big prize. On that unlucky day, he had missed out on the jackpot by a single digit.

“What’s crazy is the night before, I matched four out of five numbers on my Fantasy 5 ticket and thought: ‘I was so close!’” he told the lottery. With just four matching numbers, he was only able to win $100. While at the time he was disappointed at missing out, his luck and situation changed for the better the next night.

While the man turned his luck through persistence, a woman from Arkansas cashed in on her peculiar practice. In the fairytale story, the winner who also chose to be anonymous, placed her ticket under her pillow for luck and ended up winning a  $2 million prize.

She told the lottery officials that she was pretty confident about her trick as well. "I said I was going to win big," she said. This was because the trick previously helped her win a $100,000 prize.