This District Heights father of two plans to save most of his Powerball prize to buy a house.
Removed lucky Powerball ticket from pants pocket moments before washing machine started
A Prince George’s County man who said his girlfriend is notorious for doing the laundry without making sure pants pockets are empty leapt into action at just the right moment. When he saw his girlfriend loading the washing machine, Eric Cotton realized chances were good that four Powerball tickets he’d recently bought were still in the pockets of a pair of pants that was moments away from being under water.
The District Heights dad was correct! Just before it was too late, Eric dug out four quick-pick tickets he purchased at Kaywood Liquors in Mt. Rainier for the Nov. 6 drawing. Then he sat down to check them, slowly scanning them one by one using the Maryland Lottery app on his phone.
“Five minutes later, she was washing clothes,” he said. The first three tickets yielded no surprises but that fourth ticket was an entirely different story. “I looked back at her and she said, ‘What’s wrong?’” He happily shared the great news with her: The last ticket he scanned won a $50,000 third-tier prize!
A fan of scratch-offs, Powerball and Mega Millions, Eric is a regular Lottery player at Kaywood Liquors. “I usually wait until the jackpots get over the $50 million mark to play,” he said. The Powerball jackpot sat at $75 million for the Nov. 6 drawing, where he matched four of the five white balls and the Powerball number.
Eric said most of his $50,000 windfall will go into savings to buy a house for his family of four. The father of two, who works as a contracted truck driver, added that some of the funds will help his daughter have a happy birthday.
