Kent County man wins $1 million prize

Drawing Date: 9/11/2015

September 17, 2015 - A lucky Kent County, Mich., man is busy counting cash after winning $1 million playing the Michigan Lottery’s Mega Millions game.

Michael Hicks, of Comstock Park, won $1 million in Friday’s Mega Millions drawing after matching the five white balls drawn: 05-11-31-50-67. Hicks bought his winning ticket at the D&W Quick Stop, located at 1810 Breton Road Southeast in Grand Rapids.

“I wasn’t even going to buy a ticket for Friday’s drawing,” said Hicks. “I had to make a quick stop for gas and that’s when I bought the ticket.”

The 34 year-old Hicks found out a couple of days later that his unplanned Lottery purchase turned out to be very lucky.

“I check my tickets every few days, and when I scanned my Mega Millions ticket the scanner said to see the clerk. I tried to scan it again and got the same message,” said Hicks. “I gave the ticket to the clerk and they told me that I won more than $600 and I needed to go to the Lottery office.

“I went over to the Lottery’s Grand Rapids office and when they looked over the ticket they told me I’d won $1 million. I couldn’t believe what they were saying. It just didn’t seem real.”

Hicks put his ticket in a safe until he came to Lottery headquarters in Lansing on Wednesday to collect his big prize.

Hicks plans to set aside a portion of his winnings to pay for his son’s college education. He also plans to pay off his bills and buy a new home.

“When I found out I won, it was like all of my stress immediately disappeared,” Hicks said. “Just a couple of weeks ago I was sitting at home wondering what I was going to do because times were getting really rough. Now I don’t have to worry about that any more.”

The Mega Millions game has been lucrative for Michigan Lottery players in 2015. This year, six winning tickets have matched the five white balls to win $1 million. One of those players bought the Megaplier option, which increased his $1 million prize to $5 million.