A happy Baltimore couple won a $50,000 prize in the April 2 Powerball drawing. |
Lucky ticket purchased at Mt. Airy grocery pays off
A happy ballet teacher from Baltimore and her husband were dancing on air as they arrived at Maryland Lottery headquarters on Monday morning, just hours after discovering they won a $50,000 Powerball prize.
On a whim, she purchased one line of Quick Pick Powerball numbers for $2 on April 1 in advance of the Saturday, April 2 drawing. She and her husband play Powerball, Mega Millions and Cash4Life several times a month but hadn’t won big until now.
They didn’t watch the Powerball drawing because they spent the evening taking in the Light City Baltimore Festival. Late Sunday night, they decided to check the winning numbers.
“I saw we had two of them, and I said ‘Look, we won something, even if it’s $2, we won something,’ ” the lucky winner said.
Then, the couple realized they matched more than two of the numbers. In fact, they matched four of them, plus the Power Ball number, giving them a $50,000 prize. Still, they weren’t entirely sure about their win.
“We wrote them down to compare them to the ticket, and she said, ‘Wait, do they have to be in the same order they were drawn?’ ” said the winner’s husband. “I didn’t believe it. We bought the ticket on April Fools’ Day. I thought maybe it was a joke.”
The lucky winner said she planned to use some of the money to help pay for her mother’s recent medical expenses. The rest will go into savings. Married for three years, the couple’s long-term goal is to save money to make a down payment on a farm.
They found their lucky ticket at the Safeway #1815 at 337 East Ridgeville Boulevard in Mt. Airy. Powerball drawings are held every Wednesday and Saturday night.