An Anne Arundel County man went to, as 1930s gangster Willie Sutton famously said, “where the money is” last week in pursuit of a Lottery prize. The house painter scratched a Break the Bank scratch-off while waiting in line – at a bank. Unsurprisingly, the $50,000 top prize he uncovered left him a bit flustered when his time came to speak with the teller.
The every-day player is no stranger to winning lottery cash. The reason he chose to play Break the Bank that fateful day was the $500 he won with the game just days earlier, he explained Sept. 9 when he claimed his prize at Lottery headquarters in Baltimore.
“I mainly buy scratch tickets, and always $5 games, the Pasadena resident said. “I’ve had really good luck with them, but I never expected this.” The $50,000 top prize he claimed is Break the Bank’s first to be discovered. Seven more remain unclaimed, along with eight $5,000 second-tier prizes.
The winner plans to use his windfall to take care of debt that has been worrying him for years, he said, adding, “It is such a relief to get these bills off of my mind.”
The happy man’s good fortune started with a stop for lunch at the Quick Save Mart at 524 Defense Highway in Annapolis. That’s when the store’s Lottery vending machine caught his eye. The Lottery rewarded the owners of the store with a $500 bonus for selling the top-prize winner.
