Cumberland Man In Disbelief After $50,000 Pick 5 Win

After checking multiple times, he was finally convinced of his big prize

A Maryland Lottery player from Cumberland initially refused to believe that his Pick 5 ticket was a big winner. But no matter how hard he tried to deny it, he won the game’s largest possible prize — $50,000.

“First I tried to check the ticket and the machine said, ‘Take to the Lottery,’” the Cumberland resident said Aug. 26 while claiming his prize at Lottery Headquarters in Baltimore. After that, he charged his phone and used the Maryland Lottery app to scan the Pick 5 ticket. It said the ticket was a $50,000 winner.

“I thought, ‘Yeah, this is a mistake,’” he said. So he deleted the app, reinstalled it and checked again. But the result was the same: It was a $50,000 winner.

As a last resort, he checked the ticket against the winning numbers. Sure enough, he had selected 52134 on a $1 straight ticket for the Aug. 19 midday drawing, that was the winning combination. Finally convinced he had won, he decided to let someone else know.

“My first call was to my mom,” he said.

The lucky winner had mainly played scratch-off tickets, and scored a few wins in the $500 to $700 range. Then a few months ago, his girlfriend introduced him to playing Pick 5. He has always played straight bet combinations with a $1 bet, which returns a $50,000 prize on an exact match.

He has a few fairly modest plans for his winnings: He’ll be paying a few bills, looking for a new car, buying a few things to make his mom comfortable and taking care of some repairs at her house.

“I want to save some to try to do some good things,” he added. And he’ll be celebrating with his girlfriend.

“We’ll be going to dinner, that’s for sure.”

Sharing in his good fortune is the 7-Eleven #36164 at 400 Maryland Avenue in Cumberland, where he bought the ticket. The store receives a bonus of $500.