Wins $50,000 Top Prize Playing Money Mania Scratch-off
A brief stop at a local tavern made for a particularly happy Valentine’s Day for Deborah and Joe Rawls. The Baltimore City couple was on their way home from work yesterday and decided to pop into one of their favorite establishments for a beverage and some Lottery play.
They purchased four instant tickets, which Deborah proceeded to scratch with no success. Joe quickly suggested that she try one more time and gave her five dollars. “I give her the money and she scratches the tickets. It seems to work better that way,” said Joe. Indeed it did, that five bucks multiplied 10,000 times as Deborah revealed she was a top prize winner.
“I couldn’t believe it,” said Joe. “I ran up to the guy working and said ‘check this for me, will ya?’” The excited twosome expressed shock and awe at their good fortune. “It seemed too good to be true,” said Joe. “I figured I was reading it wrong.”
Once convinced, the happy pair began making phone calls. The first call was to Joe’s employer informing them that he would not be in today. “I said, ‘give me a vacation day. I just won the Lottery.”
They then phoned their moms and a few friends to share the news. “Congratulations” and a lot of “you gotta be kidding me’s” were received by the happy winners.
The Rawls intend to use their prize money to pay off a recently purchased car. “We’ve only made eight payments and it’s been a little bit of a burden,” said Joe. “This will help out tremendously,” added Deborah. The remaining winnings will help with school tuition for one of their four children and the rest will go in the bank. The winning ticket was purchased at Mickey’s, located at 5200 North Point Blvd. in Baltimore.