A Maryland Lottery player from Cecil County regularly buys a single ticket for each of the two daily Pick 5 drawings, but for the Sept. 30 drawing, she ended up with two tickets that had the same number. And when that number hit, she won a pair of $50,000 prizes.
With her husband at her side, she claimed the prizes Oct. 1 at Lottery headquarters in Baltimore. Though he’s not a Lottery player, he was tickled about the win. He encourages his wife to play numbers that catch her eye when she sees them on license plates, or numbers that have relationships to dates important to the family.
In this case, she had been playing the combination 78048 for about a year when it hit.
“It just struck my fancy,” the winner said.
She said she has no particular plans for her winnings, though the two have children, grandchildren and a great grandchild, so there will be plenty of opportunities to spend it.
It’s not her first time enjoying a Lottery windfall, though it is her biggest by a factor of 10. She recalls having won $10,000 in 2014 on a $20 scratch-off game.
She bought the ticket at the Wawa store at 2031 Pulaski Highway in North East. The store receives $1,000 in bonuses — $500 for each $50,000-winning ticket.
