Glen Burnie man plans to buy a vehicle with $50,000 Powerball prize
A discouraging outing to shop for a used car led a Glen Burnie man and his grandmother right into the path of Lottery luck and a $50,000 Powerball win in the Aug. 23 drawing.
Tough times had descended on the family recently because of a variety of issues, the two said when claiming the prize at Lottery headquarters in Baltimore. Grandmom, however, never lost faith that their needs would be met.
Lucky Grandmom joined the 19-year-old college student to look at a used car they thought would be affordable. Unfortunately, the car shopping experience ended with no set of keys trading hands. While waiting for an Uber ride home, Grandmom noticed a Lottery retailer just down the block. Slide In Mart at 7925 Crain Highway in Glen Burnie had the right ticket waiting to turn the winner’s finances around.
“I could see he was down so I suggested that he get a ticket,” Grandmom said. “He picked out Powerball because of all the talk about the giant jackpot.”
The jackpot had rolled to $650 million for the Aug. 23 drawing. Over the weekend, the Anne Arundel County resident asked his grandmother to check the ticket while out shopping. She did and saw an unusual message.
“It said to take the ticket to the Lottery, so I did.” Her secret trip to headquarters cleared up the confusion. Shocked to learn that her grandson had won $50,000, Grandmom hurried home to share the news of his Lottery luck. He was one of two Marylanders to win $50,000 in the Aug. 23 Powerball drawing, which also created a new Maryland Powerball millionaire and a jackpot winner in Massachusetts.
“It was pretty crazy,” the young man said. “To get that kind of help out of the blue at a time when we weren’t sure how we would be able to make everything work, it’s just amazing.”
The happy winner plans to use the $50,000 prize to help with tuition and to buy a vehicle. “This takes away some of the worries we’ve all been facing,” he said.