Left in disbelief by her good fortune, she’s stopped playing until her luck replenishes
A mom of four from Walkersville plays Maryland Lottery scratch-off tickets for entertainment, but she got the bonus of a $50,000 win recently when she played the $20 game $50,000 Cash.
“I like my scratch-offs,” she said July 13 while claiming her prize at Maryland Lottery headquarters in Baltimore.
“I’m a mom to four kids and all I do is work, so that’s my entertainment,” she said of scratch-off tickets.
On a recent morning she was headed to, of course, work and decided to stop and get a cup of coffee at the Sheetz #210 at 8408 Woodsboro Pike in Walkersville. On her way out, she recalls thinking, “I feel like a scratch-off.” She stopped and bought the $50,000 Cash ticket and scratched it while still in the store.
She couldn’t believe what she saw. She snapped photos of the ticket with her phone.
“She called me not able to breathe because she was so excited,” said her mom, who accompanied her to Lottery headquarters.
Instead of going to work, she went home and hid the ticket. During breaks at work, she looked at the pictures of the ticket on her phone, but couldn’t believe it.
After work, she went home and scanned the ticket with the Maryland Lottery app’s ticket check function and confirmed it was a big winner.
“I still don’t believe it,” she said after claiming the prize.
The evening after she purchased the $50,000 winner, she bought another ticket and won $500.
“Then I stopped because I think I used all my luck,” she said.
She says the winnings will mainly benefit her kids. She’s planning to take them on a vacation and then go back-to-school shopping. The rest will go into savings for things like athletics charges, school dances and other activities.
As of making her claim, she was still waiting to buy any new Lottery tickets as her luck replenished, but her mom said she’s certain the winner will be back at it again soon enough.
The Sheetz store receives a bonus of $500, equal to 1% of the prize, for selling a top-tier winning scratch-off.
The $50,000 Cash instant ticket went on sale in December 2022 with 160 top prizes. There are still 100 top prizes remaining along with other unclaimed prizes ranging in value from $20 to $5,000.
