$10,000 prize completes daughter’s college fund
A Cockeysville man said he was shocked by his recent $10,000 Maryland Lottery scratch-off win. But the restaurant manager recovered from his special Lottery moment in record time in order to give his wife the surprise of a lifetime.
The 47-year-old frequent player stopped in at the Mars grocery store at 15 Padonia Road in Lutherville on his way home last week and purchased a Royal Gems ticket. He said he’s won several times at that lucky location, so he keeps coming back, hoping to keep the streak going.
“I don’t know why I chose Lucky Gems,” he said. “It just felt like the right ticket at that moment.”
He scratched the ticket when he got home, about 15 minutes before his wife was due to arrive.
“I was blown away when I saw a $5,000 win,” he said. “I almost didn’t continue scratching, how could it get any better?”
But continue scratching he did, and he quickly found a second $5,000 match. Fighting through his shock, he devised a plan on the spot.
“I checked my watch and realized that I had a few moments to surprise my wife,” he said.
When his wife got home a few minutes later, he sat down with her at the kitchen table and handed her a list they’d recently made together – a record of money they planned to set aside to pay for their daughter’s college education.
“It was an incomplete list, believe me,” he said. “We have been scrambling to make sure that we had the college bills covered.”
He then showed her the Royal Gems ticket, pointing to the twin $5,000 matches.
“She knew immediately what it meant,” the lucky winner said. “The college fund was complete.”
The $20 Royal Gems ticket was launched in late September, and there are plenty of big prizes still out there waiting to be found, including two $1 million prizes, five $50,000 prizes, and 12 more of the $10,000 winners that so thrilled one lucky Cockeysville family.