A 39-year-old Livingston County man turned his Sunday morning habit of returning empty cans into a $500,000 lottery jackpot, after buying a scratch-off ticket with the deposit cash and scratching it that same night after dinner. His hands were shaking too much to scan the ticket right away once he realized what he was holding.
The man bought his winning Stampede Payout ticket at a CVS store on Pontiac Trail in South Lyon, according to the CBS Detroit report from reporter Dejanay Booth-Singleton. That location sits at 22421 Pontiac Trail, a South Lyon address in Oakland County that lies just across the line from the man's home in Livingston County, according to Social House News, which noted the store's position directly along the Oakland-Livingston County border.
“I have a ritual of returning cans every Sunday morning and then using the money to buy lottery tickets,” the man said, describing the routine that funded his ticket purchase. He typically buys instant game tickets after returning cans and keeps them stored in his glove box until he's ready to play, per the same account.
A New $5 Game With Big Prizes Still on the Table
Stampede Payout launched in August 2026 as a $5 instant game, and it has already awarded more than $4 million in prizes that month, according to the Michigan Lottery. The game's payouts range from $5 up to a $500,000 top prize, and more than $17 million in total prizes remained in the game pool following this win, the state lottery agency reported.
Because the prize exceeded $100,000, the man had to claim it in person at the Michigan Lottery's central office in Lansing, per state rules governing large windfalls. Prizes over $5,000 face mandatory withholding of 24% in federal tax and 4.25% in Michigan state income tax at the time of the claim, meaning the top prize's actual lump-sum payout works out to roughly $358,750 before he files his personal income taxes.
Plans for Financial Freedom
The winner described his prize as financial freedom and said he plans to pay off his house, take a vacation, and take friends out to dinner to celebrate. He funded the ticket that changed his life with the same modest can-return money he sets aside every week, a detail that ties his win to Michigan's decades-old bottle deposit system.
Michigan's Beverage Container Act, approved by voters in 1976, set a 10-cent deposit on carbonated soft drinks and beer, a rate tied with Oregon for the highest in the nation, established to combat roadside litter, according to background compiled by the Michigan Environmental Council. That redemption system was once a national benchmark, with return rates reaching as high as 95% to 98%, but state environmental data shows the rate had dropped to 70.4% by 2024, per Resource Recycling. That decline makes routine returners like this Livingston County man increasingly uncommon among Michigan consumers.
Unredeemed deposit funds, known as escheats, don't simply disappear under state law. The first $1 million collected annually goes to the Bottle Bill Enforcement Fund, while 75% of remaining funds are directed to environmental cleanup programs and 25% is returned to retailers, Resource Recycling reported.
South Lyon's Recent Run of Big Winners
This is not the first time a South Lyon retailer has sold a ticket worth a fortune. Back in June, an Oakland County man scored $1.05 million from a Fast Cash ticket purchased at a South Lyon Speedway station, marking the community's second seven-figure lottery moment in just a few months.
The wins also arrive against a backdrop of massive statewide lottery activity. Michigan Lottery players won more than $1.7 billion playing instant scratch-off games in 2025, while the state's retailers earned over $330 million in sales commissions that fiscal year across more than 10,000 businesses that sell lottery products statewide, the agency reported. In fiscal year 2025, the Michigan Lottery contributed $1.16 billion to the state's School Aid Fund, marking the seventh consecutive year contributions topped $1 billion, according to the Office of Governor Gretchen Whitmer.
