Claims prize saying win a financial relief for family
If one were to chart a Washington, D.C. man’s top-prize scratch-off win on Thursday, the first “X” on the treasure map would be the South Potomac Shell station in Fort Washington.
Once there, the supervisor at one of the world-famous Smithsonian museums devised a complicated code enabling him to discover a $30,000 pot of Lottery gold in the form of a winning Bag To$$ Bucks scratch-off. A near-empty gas tank got the ball rolling and put him in the right place for a big win, the 57-year-old husband and father explained to Maryland Lottery officials.
“While I was there, I figured I’d play a few scratch tickets,” he said. The determined player got to work, selecting games by each one’s numbered box in the Shell station’s Lottery scratch-off display.
“I used family birthdays to pick the boxes, whichever games they were.” Sadly, he didn’t win anything — at first. “That’s when I noticed that the box numbers I’d played were even, so I picked the box next to each, all odd numbers.”
He found two winners among his instant tickets, the first for $20 and another for $30 — or, so he thought! “I’d spent $50 by then, so I was happy to win my money back,” he said. “When I tried to cash them in, the clerk’s eyes got real big.” It turns out that our local version of Indiana Jones had missed three zeroes on that $30 winning ticket.
“I was blown away,” he said. “I’d never won so much money.” He wasn’t the only one celebrating, however. “The manager got excited, too. Mine was his store’s first top-prize win.”
The D.C. resident knows exactly how to spend his $30,000 Bag To$$ Bucks prize. “Bills, of course, but especially our mortgage. It feels good to know that the mortgage is covered well into the future.”
His lucky Prince George’s County retailer is also a winner. The gas station located at 9100 Livingston Road earns a $300 bonus from the Lottery for selling a $30,000 top-prize winning scratch-off. Two more top prizes remain in the $3 game, along with thousands of others ranging from $3 to $1,000.