Upper Marlboro’s “Sunshine” collects her $50,000 Bonus Match 5 top prize. |
Upper Marlboro woman wins $50,000 Bonus Match 5 prize
She’s played a combination of family birth dates and her badge number for 25 years, a Prince George’s County woman told Lottery officials. Her collection of very lucky numbers enabled the retired police officer to pocket plenty of Bonus Match 5 cash over the last two decades.
Despite her experience as a winner, the $50,000 top prize that her favorite game delivered over the weekend left the 56-year-old in complete and utter shock. She claimed the 41st Bonus Match 5 top prize won in 2019.
“I almost didn’t get a ticket on Saturday,” the longtime Lottery fan admitted to officials. “I was tired and didn’t really feel like going out. But I was also a bit hungry.” Her growling stomach got her off the couch and out of the house. “If I’d had a bigger lunch that day, I never would have gone.”
“Sunshine” bought her lucky $6 ticket at Tucker’s Plaza & Liquors in Upper Marlboro for the Saturday, Nov. 16 drawing. While checking the results at mdlottery.com on Sunday morning, the Upper Marlboro resident saw something familiar.
“There they were, all of them, right there in the Bonus Match 5 spot.” Refusing to believe it could be true, “Sunshine” resisted calling her mother with the news as long as she could. “I was hyperventilating,” the winner said. “She had to calm me down before I could tell her why I was such a mess.”
Saturday night’s big winner will first pay a few bills with her $50,000 prize and then share the remainder with her family. She also plans to stick with the lucky combination that produced the winning ticket from Tucker’s Plaza & Liquors at 9205 Marlboro Pike in Upper Marlboro. The management at Tucker’s will receive a $500 bonus for selling this top-tier Bonus Match 5 winner.