Claims her prize wearing Lottery’s ‘I’m a Winner’ T-shirt
A Temple Hills great-grandmother arrived at Maryland Lottery headquarters looking like a winner to claim her $10,000 prize. Decked out in an “I’m a Winner” Lottery T-shirt that she received after collecting a previous win, the happy woman also sported earrings and a watch earned through her My Lottery Rewards player loyalty account.
“No pictures, no pictures!” the winner insisted, vowing to return to the Winners’ Lounge soon and possibly pose for a photo hiding behind an oversized novelty check if she wins a prize that has more zeros in it. The great-grandmother of two and grandmother of five is certain that fate is about to deliver an even bigger prize than her $10,000 win on the Crossword Deluxe scratch-off.
“I told my daughter, ‘You must be positive and have faith,’” said the 70-year-old loyal player.
“She did,” said her daughter, who also wore a Lottery T-shirt and a big smile.
The winning mother of two is a fan of crossword scratch-offs and plays them in her spare time. The retired administrative assistant picked out just one of the $10 scratch-offs to play the day she found Lottery luck at Thirsty’s Wine & Spirits at 6191 Oxon Hill Road in Oxon Hill.
She took the game home to scratch, as she always does. Her spring allergies were causing her to have vision problems and she thought she might have won $1,000 but took the game back to the store to confirm her win. She quietly scanned the ticket with the store’s ticket checker, which she always does before cashing tickets, and the scan revealed her $10,000 win.
“I thought my eyes were playing tricks on me,” she said. The winner then asked her daughter to put on her glasses and check the ticket, which led to confirmation of the $10,000 prize!
The lucky player plans to share her windfall with family members and keep on playing. She won $10,000 from the Lottery several years ago in a second-chance contest and $2,100 from Maryland Live Casino last year on Mother’s Day. Positive thinking keeps bringing the wins to her, she said. And, entering her non-winning scratch-offs into her My Lottery Rewards account keeps giving her great prizes, too!