‘Buy me a few, too,’ man tells friend buying lottery tickets. Then he wins huge jackpot

A 54-year-old Michigan man has a friend — and the seventh president of the United States — to thank for his new millionaire status.

The friend purchased the Oakland County man a Jackson scratch-off ticket at a convenience store in Farmington Hills, and it was the lottery game’s jackpot winner. The game features an image of former U.S. President Andrew Jackson on each ticket.

“Whenever my friend goes to buy lottery tickets, I always give him some money and tell him to buy me a few, too,” the player told Michigan Lottery officials in an Aug. 6 news release. “He picked out this Jackson ticket for me and I scratched it as soon as I got it. When I saw I won $2 million, my jaw hit the floor and stayed there!”

The Jackson game costs $20 to play and offers three $2 million jackpot winners.

The winner told lottery officials he “was in total awe” — and still is.

“I can’t begin to explain the feeling of winning this amount of money,” the man said.

He accepted the one-time lump sum payment of $1.3 million and plans on using it to invest and save up for his children’s college educations.

“I haven’t told anyone other than my friend that bought the ticket for me, but I plan to surprise my family soon by showing them my big check!” he said.

This story was originally published August 6, 2024 at 2:30 PM with the headline "‘Buy me a few, too,’ man tells friend buying lottery tickets. Then he wins huge jackpot."