LANSING, MI -- A Macomb County man who has been out of work for a year won $300,000 playing the Michigan Lottery's "Winter Lucky Times 10" instant game.

"I've been through hell over the last year," said the winner, who chose to remain anonymous. "I was hit by a truck and had to have multiple surgeries just to be able to walk again. Bills have piled up, and my family has really been helping me out while I've been going through all of this. It will be nice to be able to pay them all back."

The 44-year-old man bought his ticket at the Speedway gas station located at 57050 Van Dyke Road in Washington.

"I bought five tickets when I stopped at Speedway and scratched the bar codes off so I could scan them and see if they were winners," said the player. "The first four weren't winners, but the machine said something different for the last one. I scanned it a couple more times because I thought the machine was broken.

"When it kept reading the same thing, I decided to take the ticket home. When I got home, I scratched the rest of the ticket off and was shocked when I saw it was a $300,000 winner!"

The lucky winner visited Michigan Lottery headquarters in Lansing Thursday to claim his prize.

Along with paying back his family for helping him through a tough time, he plans on a setting up a college fund for his daughter and investing the remainder of his winnings.