Lotto winner: This time it’s no joke!

A Miami County man who won a $25,000 lottery prize wasn’t the only person struggling to believe his luck.

Michael Emery called his family Monday to say he’d won $25,000 playing a $5-Bass-Pro-Shops instant scratch ticket. They didn’t believe him.

They had a good reason, however.

 He played a trick on his family in a similar situation last July. The 21-year-old Paola resident had taken a photo of himself by a slot machine in Las Vegas that had run up a jackpot and claimed it was his.

This time Emery really did win the jackpot .

“When I bought the Bass Pro Shops ticket, I was trying to get a non-winning ticket to mail in for the second-chance drawing,” he said.

Emery said he plans to pay bills with his prize money.