A Baltimore County man visited lottery headquarters Sept. 2 to claim a prize he never expected to win with a technique he long ago abandoned. His surprise $40,000 Mega Millions win made a believer out of the correctional system administrator.
“I won $2,000 last year, my biggest prize ever,” the Rosedale resident said. “I don’t buy tickets too often, and when I do, I never spend more than $5,” he explained. Assuming that his infrequent play and low-dollar lottery routine made it unlikely he’d ever win big, he was thrilled with the $2,000 win and never expected to do better.
As a result, when he saw the five-digit return he received from his $5 ticket in the Aug. 12 Mega Millions drawing, he was stunned.
He recalled: “$40,000? How could this be, I thought?”
What made the big win seem even more off beat was the method he employed selecting his numbers.
“For many years I used my wife and kids’ birth months and years for my tickets. This produced zero wins for me, so I eventually stopped,” he said. Then, last month, he said he returned to those dates that had proven unlucky, at least from a Lottery perspective.
But something had changed.
“The first ticket I bought with the numbers was this one. Amazing!”
The Royal Farms store at 8803 Philadelphia Road in Baltimore sold the $40,000 ticket. The winner matched four of the five white balls and the Mega Ball. A baseline win of $10,000 was multiplied by 4 because his Mega Millions ticket automatically included a randomly generated 4X multiplier.
