Winning Mega Millions Lottery Winners: Michigan's Newest Millionaires

Michigan has a couple of new millionaires after their numbers came up in recent Mega Millions drawings. One of them, a Dexter man, carried his winning $1 million ticket around in his wallet for months before realizing he had won. In the other case, Michigan Lottery officials made four phone calls before a Rochester Hills man picked to learn he’d won $1 million by matching five numbers on a Mega Millions ticket he had bought online.

Anthony Frabotta, 66, of Rochester Hills, won his $1 million prize in the Jan. 24 Mega Millions drawing after he matched the five white balls that were drawn — 08-42-54-63-67. He bought his ticket online.

“I missed a few calls from a Lansing-area phone number the day after I won,” Frabotta told the Lottery. “I usually don’t answer if I don’t recognize the number, but I thought somebody might need bail money so I answered.”

He can post a lot of bail with his winnings.

“At first I thought I had goofed something up or done something wrong,” Frabotta said. “When the supervisor, Joe, said I won $1 million it got my attention. I looked at the speakerphone in my office and said: ‘Say that again please!’

“While I was listening to Joe, I opened my account and saw I had a $1 million pending prize. That’s when it hit me that I had really won.”

Frabotta said he plans to use the winnings to support children’s charities in Metro Detroit and retire a couple of years early.

Ticket In Wallet For 8 Months

Edward Anderson, 50, of Dexter, doesn’t play the Mega Millions game often, but will occasionally by tickets when the jackpot soars. That’s what prompted him to stop and buy a ticket at the 7-Eleven store at 18210 Allen Road in Melvindale about eight months ago.

“When I do buy tickets, I wait and check them after I’ve got several to check,” Anderson told the Lottery.
Eight months later, he was going through his wallet and saw the ticket. “I checked the ticket and almost had a heart attack because I thought tickets expired after six months,” he said.

Luckily for Anderson, Michigan Lottery draw game tickets are valid for one year from the date of the drawing.
Anderson matched the five white balls — 06-13-21-49-50 — in the June 21, 2016, Mega Millions drawing to win a $1 million prize.

Anderson told the Lottery he plans to save his windfall to cover any emergencies that may come up.

‘I Knew I Had Something Good’

There’s a third big winner, too. A Wayne County man who wants to remain anonymous won $152,385 in the Michigan Lottery’s Club Keno add-on game, called The Jack. He matched eight of the 20 Club Keno numbers in a ticket purchased Feb. 11 at Bricks of Northville, 133 W. Main St., in Northville. It was the man’s second Club Keno prize, the Michigan Lottery said.

“I was on my way out the door at Brick’s and I saw The Jack was getting pretty high, so I decided to buy a ticket,” the winner told lottery officials. “The next day I went to my favorite party store to check the ticket. When the machine said to see the retailer, I knew I had something good.”

Photo by Philip Taylor via Flickr Commons