Man turns to internet to find new lottery numbers — and wins big prize in Michigan

Usually when Aaron Essenmacher plays a Michigan Lottery game, he turns to his routine set of numbers.

But when the 50-year-old man from Warren recently bought his Lucky For Life tickets, he decided to buy one extra ticket and use a new set of numbers, according to an Oct. 28 news release from Michigan lottery officials.

Essenmacher, who won the Sept. 15 drawing, said he turned to the internet to find those new numbers, using a “random number generator” he found online. The generator pulled the numbers 02-18-27-41-45.

“I was checking the winning numbers online the day after the drawing and when I saw I’d matched five, I couldn’t believe it,” he said in the news release. “What shocked me even more was that the numbers I won on are the ones I got from the random number generator. I kept scanning my ticket on the app over and over again because I couldn’t believe I’d really won!”

He won the game’s top prize — $25,000 a year for life.

When given the option of the annual payments for 20 years or a lifetime — whichever is longer — or a one-time payment of $390,000, Essenmacher chose the lump sum, according to the release.

He plans to use the money to pay off bills and go on a vacation, officials said.

The winning ticket was sold at Happy Days Party Store in Warren, part of the Detroit metropolitan area.

This story was originally published October 28, 2022 at 8:20 AM with the headline "Man turns to internet to find new lottery numbers — and wins big prize in Michigan."