A Baltimore County mom is feeling “Grateful & Blessed” after claiming her $50,000 prize on the Let’s Make A Deal® scratch-off.
A Baltimore County mother and warehouse manager almost didn’t stop at the gas station where she discovered her biggest-ever cash win, she said Nov. 7 after she claimed her winnings at Lottery headquarters in Baltimore. Then she almost turned her back on the Let’s Make A Deal® instant ticket that delivered her $50,000 prize.
It was her hungry gas tank that ended up bringing her to the Essex Fuel Mart on Nov. 6.
“It wasn’t really that close to empty, so I was thinking about just going home and getting gas the next day,” she said. Then good fortune intervened and she decided to not put it off.
After filling up, the soon-to-be winner saw the store’s Lottery display and experienced a different sort of hunger.
“I buy tickets once in a while, but have had zero luck recently,” she said. Thinking maybe her luck had changed, she bought two higher priced scratch games, attracted by the big-dollar prizes they offered. While she did win with them, neither prize was the windfall she was hoping for.
Finding herself with a $5 bill remaining of the cash she intended to spend on Lottery tickets, she came close to putting it back in her purse.
“I thought to myself, ‘How often do people win big with a $5 ticket?’”
She quickly decided to try just one more, however, and selected Let’s Make a Deal® – a $5 scratch-off game that debuted in April with seven $50,000 top-prize winners. When the winner, who is going by the alias “Grateful & Blessed,” bought her ticket, only two of the game’s top prizes remained unclaimed.
Thirty minutes later she was parked in her driveway crying.
“I decided to wait until I got home to play it, but when I pulled up to the house, I don’t know why, but I couldn’t wait any longer. It was such a shock. Such a surprise,” she said.
The tears were ones of relief, she said. “I’ve had a couple of big debts hanging over my head. I’m always worrying about them and this takes every bit of that worry away.”
Essex Fuel Mart at 220 Eastern Boulevard receives a $500 bonus for selling the top-prize winning ticket. Along with the one remaining $50,000 top-prize, Let’s Make A Deal® still has three $5,000 and eight $1,000 prizes still unclaimed.
Let’s Make A Deal® is a registered trademark of Marcus/Glass Productions LLC. ©2025 Marcus / Glass Productions LLC. All Rights Reserved. Licensed by FremantleMedia North America, Inc.
