Loyal Lottery player wins $10,014 by playing lucky numbers
A mother of two from Hampstead had a set of lucky Mega Millions numbers that she played faithfully twice a week for six months. And, just in time for the Fourth of July weekend, those numbers paid off to the tune of a $10,014 prize.
The lucky winner has a Mega Millions playslip filled out with her numbers and carries it with her in a Lottery playslip holder.
“I’ve been using it for a while, I may need to fill out a new one,” said the winner. She and her husband of 17 years claimed the prize on Friday afternoon before heading to Ocean City to join their two children for the holiday weekend.
Her winning ticket for the June 28 drawing, which she bought at the Giant in Cockeysville, had three lines of numbers on it, and she chose the No. 7 as the Mega Ball on all three.
“Seven is my lucky number,” said the winner, who works in the insurance industry. “Some of the others are ages that I was when I had good years – numbers that are special to me.”
What was really special, though, was finding out that she was a winner! On the morning of June 29, she was watching the news on WBAL-TV 11 when she saw the winning numbers from the previous night’s Mega Millions drawing displayed on the screen. The third line on her ticket matched four of the white balls that were drawn, plus the lucky No. 7 Mega Ball. That gave her a $5,000 win, and because she paid an extra $1 per line to add the Megaplier option to her ticket, her prize doubled to $10,000. She added an additional $14 in prize money from the other two lines on her ticket.
“I paused the TV and looked at them, and the first thing I noticed was that I had the Mega Ball,” she said. “I got so excited, I drew a blank. I called my husband and I said, ‘We won the Mega Millions.’ ”
The winner’s husband, who works near the Lottery office in Baltimore, volunteered to cash the ticket for her but the loyal Lottery player wanted to do it herself. Mega Millions is her favorite Lottery game, and now it has delivered by far her largest prize. The most she had won on any previous ticket was $50. She purchased her big Mega Millions winner at the Giant grocery located at 11399 York Road in Cockeysville. The jackpot for this game continues to roll, reaching $415 million for Friday night’s drawing with a cash option of $286.4 million.