Clear Spring resident Richard Baker Jr. won a $10,000 prize on the Triple Green Crossword scratch-off. |
Longtime Lottery scratch-off enthusiast takes home $10,000 prize
A window installer from Clear Spring who has played Lottery scratch-offs regularly for years got a big surprise on Sept. 29, when he won a $10,000 prize on the Triple Green Crossword game.
Richard Baker Jr. bought four of the $5 tickets that afternoon at his favorite Lottery retailer, Williamsport Sunoco located at 304 East Potomac Street in Williamsport. After returning home, he was spending time with his ill father-in-law when he scratched off his instant tickets.
The first three scratch-offs were non-winners. But on the last ticket, he formed nine words – good for a $10,000 prize. Richard carefully counted the words and confirmed that he had all of the letters he needed to form them. And then he made a happy phone call to his wife.
“I asked her, ‘What would you do with $10,000?’ ” he recalled. “She said, ‘Take a vacation.’ It felt pretty good. It’s exciting.”
Richard and his wife have been married 28 years and have three children – two sons and a daughter. One of his sons accompanied him to Lottery headquarters in Baltimore on Sept. 30 to claim the prize. Instead of making vacation plans, he said he plans to put the money in the bank and perhaps use it to pay some bills. The Washington County resident enjoys playing $3 and $5 scratch-off games. The largest prize he’d won before now was $1,000 on a ticket he purchased about 10 years ago.
The Triple Green Crossword ticket launched in June, and four of its $50,000 top prizes are still unclaimed, along with nine more $10,000 prizes, 29 $1,000 prizes and thousands of additional prizes ranging from $5 to $150.