A Hagerstown man purchased an extra Cash Blast scratch-off that fell out as the clerk was conducting the transaction, and that ticket ended up being a $50,000 winner.
The player, who claimed the windfall Aug. 6 at Lottery headquarters in Baltimore, said he started by purchasing multiple scratch offs, and then returned to the counter buy one more. The clerk was going to hand him a scratch-off out of the box, but there was an extra ticket that fell out after having been left loose by a previous transaction.
“Instead of giving me a ticket from the box, he gave the extra ticket on the side,” the retired mechanic pointed out.
As he scratched the ticket, he quickly realized it was the right one to have: he had a 9 in his numbers that matched with a 9 in the winning numbers. Then he scratched underneath the 9 to find the $50,000 top-prize.
His wife took out her phone to scan the scratch-off with the Maryland Lottery app and it was confirmed he was top-tier winner.
“When I saw $50,000, I said, ‘You must be kidding’,” the excited player said.
The winner said he is undecided how he is going to spend his prize, but noted that he likes to travel. He predicts he and his wife will take more vacations.
Cash Blast lifted off on June 23 and this is the third $50,000 prize claimed, with the previous two winners coming on tickets sold in Calvert and Prince George’s counties. Five top prizes remain unclaimed. There are also tens of thousands of prizes ranging from $10 to $5,000 that remain unclaimed.
Peach Town Liberty at 21322 Leitersburg Pike in Hagerstown, was the store that sold the winning ticket. The Washington County retailer receives a $500 bonus, equal to 1% of the prize amount.
