A Maryland man said his “last second” decision to buy a ticket for that evening’s Powerball drawing led to his winning a $50,000 prize. Photo courtesy of the Maryland Lottery
A Maryland man said his “last second” decision to buy a ticket for that evening’s Powerball drawing led to his winning a $50,000 prize.
The Carroll County man told Maryland Lottery officials he was filling up his gas tank on June 15 when the lottery popped into his mind.
“As I was waiting for the tank to fill, I remembered that it was a Powerball night — and Powerball is the game I play the most,” he said.
The man said he initially talked himself out of buying a ticket at the Sykesville Convenience Store on Sandosky Road.
“At the last second, I parked at the convenience store and went in. I was so close to just leaving,” the player said.
He scanned his ticket a few days after the drawing, and was initially unsure if he had won.
“It told me to take the ticket to the lottery,” he explained. “I thought the machine was broken.”
The player attempted to scan the ticket the following day at another store, and a clerk explained the message meant he had won a big prize.
Pocketing his ticket, he decided to try it at another store the next day.
“I was excited when she told me that, but I didn’t fully believe it,” he said.
The ticket turned out to be a $50,000 third-tier winner.
“I tried to shout, to say anything. It just wouldn’t come,” the winner said of the moment he realized the amount of his prize.
