A 39-year-old Genesee County woman won a $1 million top prize in the Michigan Lottery’s new Lucky Stars instant game after buying tickets on a last-minute stop during a Cinco de Mayo outing in Flint earlier this month.

The woman, who asked to remain anonymous, said she was out with a friend and had not planned to stop for tickets that day. But after using winnings from another game to buy two more tickets at Liquor Wheel on Clio Road, she picked up one $5 Lucky Stars ticket and scratched it in the store. “I play lottery games a lot, but I actually wasn’t planning on stopping to buy tickets that day,” she said. When she saw the result, she said, “I scratched them in the store and ran out to my car crying when I saw I’d won $1 million.” “It was unreal!” she said.

She later claimed the prize at Michigan Lottery headquarters and chose a one-time lump sum payment of about $693,000. “I’m still trying to process it,” she said. She said she plans to buy her parents a new house and car and save the rest of the winnings.

The win puts a spotlight on the Michigan Lottery’s Lucky Stars game, which is still new enough that a sudden jackpot can catch a player off guard. For this winner, the timing mattered: a casual holiday outing, a small extra purchase and a scratch-off played in the store turned into a seven-figure prize before she had even left the parking lot.

She is keeping her name private, but her plans are already clear. The prize will help her family first, then the rest will be set aside. What began as an unplanned stop for a few tickets ended with a life-changing payout, and in this case the question of whether the ticket was worth buying has already been answered.