A Michigan woman accidentally discovered she’d won a $3 million Mega Millions prize from the Lottery after checking her email spam folder, The Guardian reports.
Laura Spears, a 55-year-old from Oakland County, Michigan, had purchased a Mega Millions ticket on the Michigan Lottery website for the December 31, 2021 drawing. After matching the five winning numbers (2, 5, 30, 46 and 61), Spears’ prize tripled to $3 million thanks to a bonus called “Megaplier,” according to a Jan. 21 Michigan Lottery news release.
“I saw an ad on Facebook that the Mega Millions jackpot was getting pretty high, so I got on my account and bought a ticket,” Spears told Michigan Lottery officials. “A few days later, I was looking for a missing email from someone, so I checked the spam folder in my email account.”
“That’s when I saw an email from the Lottery saying I had won a prize,” she continued. “I couldn’t believe what I was reading, so I logged in to my Lottery account to confirm the message in the email. It’s all still so shocking to me that I really won $3 million!”
Spears, who claimed her prize last week, said she plans on sharing her winnings with her family, and hopes to retire earlier than she had initially planned.
“I definitely added the Michigan Lottery to my safe senders list just in case I ever get lucky enough to receive another email about a huge prize,” Spears joked.
