A Michigan man said he might have never known he was a top prize lottery winner if his father hadn't come to visit and checked his pile of tickets. Photo courtesy of the Michigan Lottery
Patel said the ticket for the April 23 drawing sat in a pile of unchecked tickets on his desk for two months until his father came to visit.
"I buy tickets and a lot of times I will forget to check them right away," Patel said. "My dad was in town visiting recently and saw a pile of tickets on my desk, so he started checking them. If he hadn't done that, who knows when, or if, I would have found out that I had won."
Patel visited lottery headquarters Friday and chose to take his prize as an annuity, $25,000 a year for life.
"Knowing I can count on this for the rest of my life gives me such a sense of security," Patel said.
