Bought winning Bonus Match 5 ticket during May visit
Imagine buying a Maryland Lottery Bonus Match 5 ticket while in town visiting your brother only to discover, days later in Georgia, that you won the $50,000 top prize in the game’s May 1 drawing.
That’s just what happened to a Lithonia, Ga., resident, who came straight to Lottery headquarters from the airport a month later to claim her prize. Following her into the Winner’s Lounge was her “little” brother, pulling her wheeled carry-on suitcase.
“We’re going to celebrate,” the happy woman said, smiling. “My brother will get a piece of the pie.”
Her return to Maryland took a month to plan because she had to schedule time off from her job as a healthcare technician and make travel arrangements. The 57-year-old plays Lottery games in Georgia, too, but didn’t win until she tried her luck in Maryland! The mother of three adult children was in New Carrollton visiting her brother when “the urge” to play hit. “It’s something I do only when I get the vibe,” she said.
The lucky lady stopped at the New Carrollton Shell, located at 8309 Annapolis Road in Hyattsville, and bought a $4 Quick Pick ticket for that night’s drawing. She thought no more about the ticket and days passed. Back in Georgia, when she finally checked the ticket against the game’s winning numbers at mdlottery.com, she saw the numbers matched! At first, she had no idea how much her win was worth. She surfed the website some more and then made a phone call to Lottery headquarters in Baltimore.
“I saw the $50,000 on the website and I was excited,” she said. “I was screaming. I was even more excited when I called and the woman told me I’d won $50,000. I said, ‘Oh my God, I can’t talk!’”
The grandmother of one plans to share her prize with her brother and other family members, pay some bills and pay down her mortgage. “There’s so many little things to do,” she said. For selling the lucky top-prize ticket, the retailer also gets a piece of winner’s pie in the form of a $500 bonus from the Lottery.