A Baltimore County truck driver and his wife are celebrating a $250,000 win on the $10 Money Bags scratch-off game.
“I’m still not believing this is real,” a lucky truck driver named Paul admitted as he visited Maryland Lottery Headquarters in Baltimore on June 2.
By the time he made that statement, he was well into the process of claiming his top prize on the $10 Money Bags scratch-off ticket. But the enormity of what he and his wife were experiencing overwhelmed him. Finding oneself $250,000 richer will do that to you.
The couple were working their way through a grocery list at a Baltimore Food Lion store last week when they realized that they had passed the store’s Lottery vending machine.
“We still had a lot to get and were short on time so we debated going back to get a ticket,” he said. “We almost didn’t, but we doubled back.”
Mindful of the clock, his wife selected the first ticket her gaze fell upon, Money Bags, as the game they’d play. He agreed.
The Money Bags game arrived in stores during February, starting with five $250,000 top prizes. The first of those top prizes was claimed in early May by a Washington, D.C., resident who bought her winning ticket in Temple Hills. Paul and his wife are now celebrating alongside that winner.
“I was mowing the lawn when my wife came outside to get me,” he said, adding that she asked him to guess how much they’d won. “I guessed $500, which is the most I’d ever won, and she pointed up. I made a couple more guesses and she kept pointing. Then she got too excited to wait and showed it to me. 100% disbelief.”
The couple — Paul and Gelila — plan to use their winnings to pay bills and invest in some home remodeling projects.
“We should still have plenty left over to find something fun to do,” he added.
Along with the three remaining top prizes, Money Bags still has two unclaimed $50,000 second-tier prizes and 12 third-tier prizes of $10,000 as of June 2, along with thousands of additional prizes ranging from $10 to $1,000.
The lucky couple found their $250,000 surprise at the Food Lion at 7514 North Point Road. The Baltimore County store received a $1,000 bonus for selling the top-prize winner.
