One number shy of the jackpot
Knowing the Mega Millions jackpot had reached over $550 million, an Edgewater man made sure to pick up a few tickets for the drawing on his way home from visiting a relative. Out of the 363,610 Maryland winners from the Tuesday, Dec. 17 drawing, he was the only one to take home the $1 million second-tier prize.
The man, who works for the federal government, told Lottery officials that once he heard the news that there was a $1 million Mega Millions ticket sold at that store, he knew he needed to check his tickets.
Two days after the drawing, the man took his Mega Millions ticket, with five Quick Pick draws, to the store to have it scanned. He knew the minute a message popped up instructing him to go to Lottery headquarters that he had won something big. Quickly, he signed the back of his ticket and went home.
“I looked up the numbers at home and sure enough on the third line, I had all the numbers except for the Mega Ball,” he said.
Immediately, the man shared the good news with his wife and then proceeded to call his mother. “He called me and sent me a picture of the ticket,” he mom said.
To keep the ticket safe until he could come into Lottery headquarters in Baltimore, the man put the ticket into a safe. “We actually brought the safe with us in the car today,” he laughed.
The man and his wife plan to invest the money for their family’s financial future. When prodded a little further, the man admitted that there were, “One or two date nights in the future,” for the couple.
The lucky man picked up his life-changing ticket at the Highs located at 158 Old Mill Bottom Road in Annapolis.