 Rosa Rivas Hernandez of Pikesville is all smiles with her $10,000 win on an Emerald Riches scratch-off. |
Pikesville woman wins $10,000 prize on Emerald Riches game
A hospital environmental services worker who buys Maryland Lottery scratch-offs on her way to work cleaned up last weekend with a $10,000 win on her favorite $10 game, Emerald Riches.
Rosa Rivas Hernandez of Pikesville stops at 7-Eleven #23698 in Baltimore every weekend to play scratch-offs before reporting to work at Sinai Hospital. Her daughter Miriam Lara, who accompanied the 55-year-old winner to Lottery headquarters, helped her happy mom share her story.
Rosa’s persistence paid off on the day Lottery luck found the scratch-off fan. The mother of five adult children bought several Emerald Riches scratch-offs on a Sunday and, sadly, didn’t find a winner. Should she try one more ticket at her favorite Lottery retailer?
“She was about to leave and came back,” Miriam said. “She had a feeling that maybe the winner was in the next ticket.”
Rosa’s intuition was correct! She scratched off the lucky ticket in the store, as she usually does, and was startled to see the top of the half-scratched ticket reveal a $1,000 prize.
“Look at it! Look at it!” Rosa said to a store clerk. “Did you see me win?”
“She was happy with the $1,000 prize on the top of the ticket,” her daughter said. After scratching the rest of the ticket, Rosa simply couldn’t believe her eyes. Until now, her biggest Lottery prize was $500.
“It was a wonderful surprise,” Rosa said. She headed to work and shared the good news with her co-workers, who all wanted to see the lucky ticket. “She had left it in the car – she was nervous,” Miriam said. “She didn’t know she should sign the back of it until they told her.”
Rosa retrieved the scratch-off and kept it safe until arriving at Lottery headquarters the next day to claim her prize. The Lottery encourages all players to sign the back of winning tickets and keep them in a secure location until they can claim their prizes.
The happy grandmother of 12 will put most of her prize into the bank, she said. She’ll use some of her winnings to bring her mother, who lives in El Salvador, to Baltimore for a visit. And, she plans to keep playing scratch-offs at her favorite retailer. The 7-Eleven is located at 6401 Reisterstown Road in Baltimore city.