GARDEN CITY, Mich. – A Wayne County couple “freaked out” when they realized they had won more than $288,000 with a lottery ticket.
Gary Halama, 73, bought a Fantasy 5 ticket at the 7-Eleven store at 28205 Ford Road in Garden City. He matched the numbers from the July 21 drawing: 21-23-25-34-38.
“We don’t play the lottery all that often, but my wife had gotten some tickets for her birthday earlier in the month,” Halama said. “When we cashed them in, I saw how high the Fantasy 5 jackpot was, so we decided to use some of the winnings to buy five easy picks.”
Halama was one of two winners of the $577,806 jackpot, so each received $288,903.
“We got home and had some family over, so we put the ticket aside,” Halama said. “Later that night, we were looking at the numbers and thought they were all pretty high, so we figured no one would win. When we checked our ticket and saw all five numbers, we freaked out. It was so hard to believe we had really won this huge jackpot.”
Halama visited Michigan Lottery headquarters and claimed his prize. He plans to invest in his retirement.
“Winning and having extra in our retirement account certainly does put our minds at ease and lets us enjoy retirement more,” Halama said.
