Winner knew ticket was sold at nearby location but delayed checking ticket
A Waldorf man and his wife knew a Multi-Match ticket worth $840,000 was sold at a store near their home, and that he buys Maryland Lottery tickets there. Despite his wife urging him to check the ticket, he waited. When he finally checked, he realized it was a winner.
The winning numbers were drawn on Thursday, Aug. 10, and it was well-known among local Lottery aficionados that the Multi-Match jackpot winner had been sold at Moreland’s Country Store at 14950 Woodville Road in Waldorf. The winner doesn’t typically play Multi-Match, but bought the ticket on a whim.
“I play regularly, but I don’t play Mutli-Match regularly. Usually I play Mega Millions and Powerball,” he said.
Knowing that her husband was a Powerball and Mega Millions player, his wife mentioned that the big Multi-Match ticket had been sold nearby, and lamented that he didn’t play that game. He told her he did, indeed, play for the most recent drawing, but didn’t have his ticket with him.
“I left it in my truck and my wife said, ‘You should check it,’” the Waldorf winner said Aug. 15 while claiming the prize. By the time his wife suggested he check, it was Saturday, Aug. 12, and he was in no hurry to look.
Instead of checking the ticket, he ran an errand, got home and, at first, didn’t check the ticket again. Then he decided to go back to the truck and look at the ticket. After all, Moreland’s is where he buys his Lottery tickets. He glanced at it, doubtful about his prospects. Then he pulled out his phone and pulled up the winning numbers.
With a blank look of shock on his face after realizing his numbers matched the winning numbers, he went to his wife who asked about his odd expression.
“I can tell you, but you wouldn’t believe me,” he said. Then he showed her the ticket and the winning numbers on his phone.
They kept the win a secret from everyone except a financial and tax advisor and spent Sunday just pondering the enormity of it all.
The windfall, they figured, would make a planned Christmastime Pacific island trip to see a relative a lot easier to plan. Mainly, though, the windfall will just make “living life a little bit easier,” the winner said. After all, he has four sons ranging in age from early teens to 20s and, “they eat me out of house and home.”
Meanwhile he plans to keep on playing the Lottery because you never know.
For selling a Multi-Match jackpot ticket worth less than $1 million, Moreland’s Country Store receives a bonus of $1,000.
