“My cousin purchased the ticket for the white elephant gift exchange at our family Christmas party,” Hickox told lottery officials. “My dad actually won the ticket in the gift exchange, and I won the gift he brought, a flashlight. He wanted his gift back, so we made an agreement after the game to trade gifts.”
Even after realizing she was a winner, Hickox didn’t know the size of the prize at first. She said, “I scratched the ticket off and thought I won $50,000. I downloaded the Michigan Lottery app and created an account to check the ticket on the app scanner. I was expecting to see $50,000, so when I saw the extra zero, I was speechless! I couldn’t comprehend that I’d just won $500,000!”
