Ingham County teen wins $500,000 in lottery game

LANSING - An Ingham County teenager who won $500,000 in an instant lottery game plans to give away most of his winnings, state lottery officials said.

The 19-year-old man, who claimed his prize on Friday and asked to remain anonymous, told lottery officials he planned to invest $5,000 of the prize money and give the rest to his parents.

"My parents have done so much for my sister and me," he said, in a lottery bureau release. "Helping them takes a big weight off of their shoulders and mine."

The man bought the ticket at the Sunoco station, 2635 N. Williamston Road, in Wheatfield Township. He said he bought the only remaining Golden Wild Time ticket and scratched it off in the store.

" ... At first, I thought they were playing a trick on me until I saw how excited they were about the ticket," he said.

The Golden Wild Time game was launched in August. Tickets are $10 each. More than $18.5 million in prizes remained on Friday, including 45 $10,000 prizes, lottery officials said.

Contact Ken Palmer at (517) 377-1032 or kpalmer@lsj.com. Follow him on Twitter @KBPalm_lsj.