Routine upended by unusual payday in Jan. 8 drawing
A 76-year-old man from Towson and his daughter were both surprised when they checked their tickets the morning after the Jan. 8 Powerball drawing. They became increasingly surprised as the day went on. The father, who is a regular Maryland Lottery player, said that what they originally thought was a $104 prize turned out to be a $50,004 third-tier Powerball score.
A few hours earlier, the Powerball pair began their ticket-checking ritual. “He comes to me every morning and says to scan the tickets,” the daughter told Lottery officials after her dad claimed his prize at Lottery headquarters in Baltimore. She scans the tickets each time with the Maryland Lottery app on her cell phone. After that, he asks her to pick up tickets for the next drawing. They then say their good-byes. She heads off to work at Amazon and he settles into his retirement routine.
On Jan. 9, however, their Powerball routine played out differently. She scanned the tickets and the message on one of them said to bring the ticket to the retailer. The dad looked at the numbers on the ticket and, “at first, I thought it was a $104 winner,” he said.
A discussion ensued about whether dad and daughter would both return to Towson Weis Markets #228 or if he would give her the ticket to claim. They decided to go to the grocery together at 1238 Putty Hill Avenue to claim the prize. Instead, they got a surprise. As the daughter put it: “The girl at the counter said, ‘Don’t lose this ticket!’ ” Then, the clerk handed her a slip of paper saying the ticket was worth $50,004. One of the five lines of quick-pick numbers hit for $50,000 and one hit for $4.
They drove directly from the grocery store to Lottery headquarters. The daughter explained, “We did not want to risk losing this ticket!”
Everything happened so fast that the pair hadn’t given any thought about what to do with the prize. After such an exciting morning, though, they agreed a celebratory crab cake lunch was the logical next stop.
Not all winners claim big Powerball prizes the day after the drawing. Several tickets with prizes ranging from $50,000 to $200,016 were purchased in recent months but remain unclaimed:
- On Jan. 3, a ticket with an unclaimed prize of $50,000 was purchased at the Value Dollar store, 8030 New Hampshire Avenue, Hyattsville;
- On Jan. 4, a ticket with an unclaimed prize of $50,000 was purchased at Wawa store #8507 at 7800 Parke West Drive in Glen Burnie;
- On Nov. 23, 2019, a ticket with an unclaimed prize of $50,000 was purchased at Lou’s Stop Shop, 1208 Mayo Road in Edgewater;
- On Oct. 25, a ticket with an unclaimed prize of $200,016 was purchased at Country Place Liquor Store, 3140 Marshall Hall Road in Bryans Road;
- On Oct. 19, a ticket with an unclaimed prize of $50,000 was purchased at Westway Liquors, 5312 Edmondson Avenue in Baltimore.
Players have 182 days from the drawing date to claim prizes. The Maryland Lottery encourages players to sign winning tickets on the back and keep them in a safe place.
The Powerball jackpot has continued to roll for weeks. There’s still time to get a ticket for the Jan. 11 drawing, which features a $277 million jackpot. The cash option is $188.4 million.