A huge prize was claimed from the Michigan Lottery, but it took much longer than normal to make that claim. Eileen Wickett of Northville was the lucky winner of the $1 million Powerball, but it took her more than six months to finally claim the prize.
Wickett, 60, is from Warren County, and she is someone that plays the Michigan Lottery on a regular basis. The drawing took place on February 6, but Wickett was not paying attention to the drawing when it was held.
In order to win the $1 million prize, Wickett was able to successfully match all five of the white numbers that were pulled in the drawing. According to the lucky winner, Wickett plays the same five numbers every time: 05-11-22-23-69.
After finally claiming the massive prize, Wickett immediately called her family to inform them of the great news. She also has big plans for the prize money that include a family vacation, home renovations, and giving some to lucky family members.
An Honest Mistake
Some might wonder how a regular player of the Michigan Lottery can go more than six months without claiming the prize, but Wickett gave a pretty clear explanation. Since she plays the Michigan Lottery so much, she has a subscription service set up that just buys the tickets for her every single week.
The Michigan Lottery did send her an email informing her of her big win, but she simply ignored the email as she believed it was only a small win. After finally logging into her account, Wickett was able to see just how large of a prize she had claimed.
Since the prize was so large, Wickett would not have received her prize without officially checking in with the Michigan Lottery.
2021 Was a Big Year
The win from Wickett ended a long run without a Powerball winner, as there was no winner during the entire 2022 calendar year. That wasn’t the case in 2021, as there were two massive winners during that time period.
The Wolverine FLL Lottery Club actually won the $1.05 billion prize back in 2021, and that group has since been donating some of that money back to help out the community. There was also another Powerball winner in 2021, but that winner actually failed to claim the prize by the deadline.
