#powerball Iron River Man Wins $1 Million Powerball Prize

January 20th, 2016

An Iron River, MI man thought a co-worker was playing a mean trick on him when she told him he'd won $1 million playing Powerball.

Mike Paine, 56, matched the five white balls in Wednesday night's drawing to win $1 million. He bought his winning ticket at the Freedom Valu Center, located at 405 North Stephenson Avenue in Iron Mountain.

"I had heard a portion of the numbers on the news while I was getting ready for work Thursday morning, and knew I matched two of them," said Paine. "When I got to work, I asked a co-worker to pull the numbers up on her phone."

"As she said the numbers, I thought she was playing a trick on me and just reading them off of my ticket. I asked her if those were really the winning numbers, when she said yes, I couldn't believe it!"

Next, Paine gathered several co-workers to share his good news.

"A few of them didn't believe me at first," said Paine. "But everyone was so excited that I had won. One of my co-workers walked by me later in the day, pinched me, and told me I wasn't dreaming."

The record $1.56 billion Powerball jackpot attracted Paine to the game last week.

"If I spend $100 on Lottery tickets in five years, that's a lot," said Paine. "But when I saw how high the jackpot was, I couldn't pass up a chance to be a billionaire."

Paine plans to continue working for a few more years, but is looking forward to retiring knowing he has some extra cash in the bank.

"I've got probably three or four more years of work, but I'm going to use this money to make life and my retirement more comfortable," Paine said.

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