Kristen Shea was all smiles as she claimed her $50,000 prize on the Extreme Green Taxes Paid scratch-off. |
Mother of two wins with Extreme Green scratch-off
Kristen Shea had no idea what was coming when she made a quick stop for gas, coffee and orange juice at a 7-Eleven in Libertytown.
After paying for her purchases, the New Windsor resident had $5 in change and asked the store’s clerk for a $5 scratch-off. She didn’t have a preference as to which one, so he randomly selected an Extreme Green Taxes Paid game, which carries a $50,000 top prize with taxes paid by the Maryland Lottery.
Kristen went outside the store to pump gas and began to scratch off the ticket. However, she was on her way to an appointment and didn’t have time to finish the game. The 33-year-old mother of two, who works as a waitress, stuffed the partially scratched ticket in her bag and sped off to her destination.
“I was running late, and when I got there I remembered I had the ticket, so I got it out and finished scratching it,” she said.
The first portion of the ticket that she scratched while getting gas hadn’t revealed a prize. But hiding under the second part of the ticket was the shock of a lifetime for Kristen: three cash symbols in a horizontal line, which meant she had won the ticket’s top prize of $50,000.
“It was just disbelief,” Kristen said. “I was asking people, ‘Is this right? Am I seeing this right?’ I started bawling. It’s life changing.”
Two days later, the Carroll County resident was joined by her sister as she claimed her prize at Lottery headquarters in Baltimore. It wasn’t until then that she realized the taxes-paid feature of the ticket. And the shock at her luck began anew!
Kristen is an avid scratch-off player, but the largest prize she’d ever won previously was $100. She said she plans to use the money to pay bills and do “something special” with her children. The retailer is a winner as well. For selling the top-prize ticket in the game, the 7-Eleven at 11922 Main Street in Libertytown will receive a $500 bonus from the Lottery.
The Extreme Green Taxes Paid ticket launched in December and two of its $50,000 top prizes are still waiting to be found at Lottery retailers. There are also thousands of other prizes ranging from $5 to $5,000.