A Silver Spring man, who was in Baltimore on Dec. 11 to collect a Double Your Money scratch-off prize, said his story of winning began when he lent a hand to a family member last month. That kindness was returned in the form of a $100,000 top-prize-winning ticket.
“I was on the phone with him when he pulled into a gas station,” the truck driver said Dec. 11 when he claimed the prize at Lottery headquarters in Baltimore, referring to his relative. “He told me that, while he was there, he would buy me a scratch ticket as a ‘thank you’ for the help I’d been to him.”
The Montgomery County winner asked him to scratch the ticket, a $10 Double Your Money game, while he remained on the phone. He tells us that he could hear the excitement in his family member’s voice when he reported a $100 win.
“We were both happy, but then he told me to hang on, that he might have read it wrong, so my excitement faded a bit.” When he returned to the phone to announce that he’d missed three zeros, that excitement came back fast.
“It was impossible to believe. I never win anything,” the winner said.
Well, he certainly can’t say that anymore.
The drama played out at the Exxon station at 12245 Veirs Mill Road in Silver Spring. The Montgomery County business receives a $1,000 bonus from the lottery for selling the top-prize-winning ticket. The Double Your Money game debuted in July with 14 prizes at the $100,000 top tier level. Seven remain, along with three $10,000 third-tier winners.
