A Baltimore man who plays Powerball every week is celebrating a $50,000 prize after matching four of the first five winning numbers plus the Powerball, missing the jackpot by just one number.
The retired facilities manager, who chose to remain anonymous, said April 28 after claiming his ticket sat on his kitchen countertop for nearly two weeks before he realized it was a third-tier winner.
He had sent a friend to the Dollar Plus store at 108 South Broadway in Baltimore to purchase his ticket, using a play slip the previous week.
When the friend returned, the ticket had been crumpled in her pocket.
“She dug it out of her pocket,” the player recalled. “I had to put a book over it to flatten it out.”
When he finally checked the ticket, he could hardly believe what he was seeing.
“I thought I was seeing things,” he recalled when he claimed his prize at Lottery headquarters in Baltimore.
The Baltimore widower said he plans to use the winnings to replace the windows in his home, make repairs to his car and enjoy some Maryland steamed crabs.
This marks the player’s first significant Lottery win, but he said he has no plans to stop playing Powerball.
“It’s fun. It gives you a little hope,” he said.
