Retiree finds two-month-old winning ticket after cat catastrophe
Oh, meow! Cats love to play with papers, as the Baltimore owner of a mischievous feline knows all too well. Pumpkin the cat’s catastrophe scattered a pile of papers that included a $50,000 winning Powerball ticket from the Feb. 23 drawing.
Pumpkin’s owner had bought the lucky $2 quick-pick ticket and a few other Powerball tickets at Giant #2306 at 1020 West 41st Street in Baltimore. The owner placed her Powerball purchases where she always does: her nightstand.
“When I buy Lottery tickets, I never watch the drawings or even check to see if I won until a few days later,” she said. “What I didn’t know is that after my cat knocked some papers off my nightstand, a few of my tickets ended up falling behind my bed. I didn’t see the additional papers behind my bed until I did some spring cleaning.”
After finding the tickets for the Feb. 23 drawing, the 67-year-old sat down on the edge of her bed and checked to see if she had any winners. The loyal player used her smartphone and Maryland Lottery app to scan the codes. The first two tickets weren’t winners, she said, but the last one almost made her catatonic.
“To my surprise, one of them was a winner!” she said. The startled player jumped up and went to her closest Lottery retailer to scan the two-month-old ticket. She did a quick scan again when she came to Lottery headquarters to claim her prize. Both scans verified the dubious player’s prize.
“I don’t have big plans for the money,” said the lucky cat lover. “I will pay off some home improvement projects and donate 10 percent to my church.” A regular Powerball, Cash4Life and Mega Millions player, the city resident is keeping a copy of the winning ticket as a keepsake. “I will use some of this money to help people.”
Our cat lover is the 28th Maryland Powerball player to win a $50,000 prize this year in the popular game. The jackpot is back on a roll and has reached $166 million for the Saturday, April 27 drawing. The cash option is $102.9 million.