A 66-year-old Michigan woman had an urge to buy a lottery ticket, and the next morning she yelled ‘I just won $2.2 million’ alone in a parking lot

A 66-year-old woman from Charlevoix County, Michigan, recently won a $2.2 million lottery prize after following a sudden impulse to buy a ticket while running errands. She had been playing the Millionaire for Life game on and off since it launched earlier in the year, and on the day in question, stopped at the Mancelona North EZ Mart on U.S. Highway 131 Northeast in Mancelona to pick up a ticket bearing the numbers 03-15-16-24-28.

The next day, she scanned the ticket at a store, only to receive a message directing her to contact the lottery office. Thinking the scanner was malfunctioning, she returned to her car and checked her numbers on MichiganLottery.com, where she saw that a winning ticket had been sold in Mancelona and that her numbers matched all five. “I yelled: ‘I just won $2.2 million!’ and did a happy dance in my car,” she told Michigan Lottery officials.

As first reported by UPI, the game’s second prize is $100,000 a year for life. The winner chose a one-time lump-sum payment of $2.2 million over the annuity option. She said she plans to use the winnings to buy a new house, a car, and a boat.

The Millionaire for Life game has drawn a string of notable Michigan winners in recent weeks

Millionaire for Life costs $5 per play and holds drawings nightly at 11:15 PM ET, per the Powerball website. Players select five numbers from 1 to 58 and one Millionaire Ball from 1 to 5, with nine different ways to win. Amid a recent stretch of Michigan lottery wins, a Michigan man’s $2M scratch-off came just days earlier after he bought a ticket before a road trip.

The game’s top prize is $1 million a year for life, with winners at the top two prize levels able to choose between a 20-year annuity or a one-time cash payment. Millionaire for Life is currently available in more than 30 states and jurisdictions, including Michigan, Ohio, Indiana, New York, and Pennsylvania. Among similar stories this year, a Baltimore worker’s unplanned $100K win came after an impulse stop at a convenience store following an overtime shift.

All winning tickets must be redeemed in the state or jurisdiction where they were originally sold, with official results confirmed under the observation of an independent accounting firm.