Bowie couple claims Bonus Match 5 top prize in Sept. 26 drawing
Before joining her sleeping husband upstairs, a Prince George’s County woman decided to check the Maryland Lottery website for the evening’s winning Bonus Match 5 numbers. Her husband frequently plays the daily game and she wanted to see if any of his regular numbers had hit.
This seemingly innocuous decision produced a scene straight out of a TV show. The late-night drama ended happily for the Bowie couple, who won the game’s $50,000 top prize in the Sept. 26 drawing. The action began shortly after the wife looked on mdlottery.com for the drawing results.
“I immediately recognized the family birthday numbers that he always plays – when he plays, that is,” the wife said. “The Bonus Match 5 playslip he uses to play the numbers wasn’t where he normally leaves it, which told me that he must have taken it and bought tickets. But there were no tickets where he usually puts them.”
The anxious spouse, who was praying that her sleeping husband had purchased a ticket for Thursday’s drawing, began searching the house for the tickets. “I knew it would kill him if our numbers came out and he hadn’t played, so I searched the whole downstairs – under magazines, behind pillows, in the kitchen – I just kept looking and looking.”
Finding nothing after an exhaustive search, the wife went upstairs. “I had to wake him to find out, so I shook him and asked.” Due to wake up in a few hours to go to work as a waste management specialist, the husband gave her the news she was hoping for but dreading she wouldn’t hear.
“I hated to wake him, but I had to,” she said, smiling at the memory as the couple sat at Lottery headquarters in the Winner’s Circle. “I hated to send him right then out to the car where he’d left the ticket, but I had to.”
The 5-6-12-19-35 combination that Bonus Match 5 produced on Thursday made them the 35th winners of the game’s top prize this year. They plan to dedicate their $50,000 prize to home repairs and their family.
Also celebrating is Pointer Ridge Liquors at 1326 Crain Highway in Bowie. The Prince George’s County store earned a $500 bonus from the Lottery for selling the top-prize winning ticket in the game.