Takes home top prize on Neon x20 scratch-off

A Columbia car salesman who was $5 shy of the cash needed to join his co-workers in a Maryland Lottery scratch-off pool did 100,000 times better going solo. He only had $15 in cash that day and purchased his own instant tickets at River Hill Sunoco in Clarksville. That decision set off a series of events ending with his $100,000 top-prize win on a Neon x20 scratch-off!

A slow day on the car sales lot led to a great day for the scratch-off players. After winning a small amount on his tickets, the father of two young sons took his co-workers’ winning scratch-offs and his own winning ticket back to the store to exchange for more scratch-offs. The Howard County man returned to his place of business with three different $10 scratch-off s.

“I let them choose which ones they wanted first,” said the 29-year-old. “Neither of them wanted the Neon x20 scratch-off because it was pink, so I wound up keeping that one for myself.”

That pink ticket carried a lot of green! Once he got to the second row of numbers on the scratch-off, the salesman noticed that he’d matched the winning number “55” and stopped scratching. Below the number 55, his prize was listed as $100,000.

“I got real silent and then started screaming,” the lucky winner told Lottery officials. “This is just so unbelievable.”

With his prize, the winner plans to take a vacation and save some of the money for a down payment on a house.

The lucky retailer is located at 5015 Signal Bell Lane in Howard County. For selling the $100,000 Neon x20 top-prize ticket, River Hill Sunoco will receive a $1,000 bonus from the Lottery. The Neon x20 scratch-off still has two $100,000 top prizes remaining, four $20,000 winners and 11 $10,000 winners.