Vicki Hofmeister of Conowingo and her husband John are celebrating her $100,000 top-prize win on a Maryland Lottery scratch-off ticket. |
Wins $100,000 on $100,000 Richer Scratch-off
A pre-snowstorm bread run during her lunch break put a huge smile on the face of an Aberdeen Home Depot cashier, who cheerfully returned to her shift on Feb. 12 even though she failed to buy bread. The happy cashier, who worked several more hours, had a reason to smile. Folded up in her back pocket through the rest of her shift was a $100,000 top-prize winning Maryland Lottery scratch-off.
Vicki Hofmeister of Conowingo plays scratch-offs regularly and often walks from her job over to Klein’s ShopRite for Lottery purchases. Knowing a big snowstorm was bearing down on Maryland, the grandmother zipped over to the store to buy bread. Alas, the 62-year-old saw a long line of customers doing the same thing.
“I said to myself, ‘I’m not getting in that line’ and I bought $20 worth of scratch-offs and put them in my (work) apron,” Vicki said. Back at her store, she dashed into the restroom to freshen up and decided to scratch off her $10 tickets. Imagine her surprise when she realized a $100,000 Richer scratch-off had made her just that!
“I had to work another 2 ½ hours with that thing in my pocket,” she said. When she got off work at 2:45 p.m., she called her husband John at his job in Fallston and told him they needed to drive to Lottery headquarters in Baltimore. “I couldn’t get off work,” John said, and remembers asking her why the trip was necessary.
“I won,” Vicki said. “How much?” John asked. “100,” Vicki said, pausing before adding, “thousand!”
They celebrated that night and kept a close eye on the ticket all during the snowstorm on Thursday. John, 64, headed to work Friday morning despite the 19+ inches of snow that coated their Cecil County home. He left work early to bring her to headquarters and they plan to celebrate Valentine’s Day in style.
The couple have yet to tell their two adult children of their good fortune, which will go entirely into a down payment on a house. They do plan to share the news with their son John, who lives out of state, and their daughter Heather, who lives in Owings Mills. They also plan to keep working unless they hit the Mega Millions jackpot, which is another Lottery game Vicki enjoys playing.
“You never know when your ship is going to come in,” she said.
Vicki found her Lottery luck at Klein’s ShopRite #548 at 949 Beards Hill Road in Aberdeen.