Pit Stop before Romantic Date Leads to Big Scratch-off Win

Lucky couple take home $50,000 VIP Club prize

A beautiful day for a romantic date at the lake became even nicer with a $50,000 winning Maryland Lottery scratch-off.

A lab technician from Baltimore County and her boyfriend from Bowie already had plans for the day but decided to stop first at Dollar Plus Store #7 at 11250 Triangle Lane in Silver Spring. “We were on our way to the lake when something told him to play the Lottery,” said the female half of the winning duo. “He purchased six VIP Club games because that store recently had a $1 million winner on that same ticket.”

When scanning the games, the first five instant tickets showed nary a win. The sixth instant ticket held a big surprise. After running that final scratch-off through the scanner, the message read, “$50,000 Winner.” The couple was shocked.

“I was just jumping up and down,” said the boyfriend. “I felt like I had a mini heart attack.”

He then scratched off the rest of the instant ticket and saw how one of his numbers matched one of the winning numbers to win his prize. He also showed the scratch-off to a cashier to triple-check the win. When the excitement died down, the couple continued their day as planned and headed to the lake.

The lucky pair decided to keep the news of their winning to themselves. After investigating what to do next, they made an appointment with the Lottery and claimed their $50,000 prize last week. They plan to use the prize to purchase a home.

The VIP Club game, which went on sale in February, still has many prizes available including three $2 million top prizes, four $50,000 prizes remaining as well as more than 615,000 prizes ranging from $30 to $5,000 still on the game.