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A man has told how he declined to answer a call from his state lottery telling him he had won USD 100,000 because it was an unknown number.

The lucky winner in Washtenaw County, in the US state of Michigan, only realised he may have won after checking his emails and then seeing a message from the state lottery.

This is when he remembered the phone call he had not answered and decided to check his voicemail, where sure enough, the state lottery had informed him of his good fortune.

The Michigan State lottery said in a statement: “The lucky player, who chose to remain anonymous, won USD 100,000 after he was selected in a random drawing that took place on Aug. 31. He earned entries into the giveaway by scanning non-winning USD 300,000,000 Diamond Riches tickets on the Michigan Lottery app.”

The lucky winner, who chose to remain anonymous, said: “I received a call from a number I didn’t recognize, so I didn’t answer it and it slipped my mind.”

The player, who is 56 years old, added: “Later that night, I was checking my email and saw a message from the Lottery saying that I had won USD 100,000. As soon as I saw that, I remembered the mysterious call and listened to the message that was left.

“I am not sure I got an hour of sleep that night, I was so excited that I had won. First thing the next morning, I called the Lottery to schedule my appointment to claim the prize!”

The state lottery said that the player had recently visited the Michigan Lottery headquarters to claim his big prize. They said: “He plans to save his winnings.”

(T4/ends)