Buys third-tier winning ticket in Jan. 26 drawing
A morning trip to the grocery store helped a Prince George’s County woman fill her bank account with a $50,000 Powerball prize.
The lucky lady bought a $2 quick-pick ticket for the Jan. 26 drawing at Giant #147 located at 9580 Livingston Road in Fort Washington. A regular Powerball player, she didn’t pay attention to results of the drawing but set the ticket aside with others. Days later, hearing that bad weather was coming, the government employee decided to return to the grocery store to stock up and check all of her Lottery tickets for a big win.
She was scanning the tickets at the store’s Lottery self-serve vending machine when she saw a peculiar message directing her to see a Lottery agent. The Fort Washington resident wasn’t sure what to do with the ticket for the Jan. 26 drawing. “I didn’t want to go to the Giant customer service counter,” she said, explaining that she didn’t want anyone to know if she did have a big winning ticket.
“I went to my car and tried to Google what the message meant,” she said. That search led her to the Lottery website, where she read that players must claim prizes larger than $25,000 at Lottery headquarters. “My hands started shaking.”
Sure enough, as she checked the winning numbers for the drawing against those on her ticket, the grandmother of two confirmed that she won a $50,000 prize. The happy woman visited Lottery headquarters in Baltimore this week to claim her prize. She is one of eight Marylanders who have won $50,000 third-tier Powerball prizes so far in 2022.
The anonymous winner plans to keep quiet about her Lottery luck. She also plans to put the windfall into the bank to enjoy later.
Other Powerball players can try to follow in her footsteps and take a turn in the Lottery Winner’s Circle. The jackpot for the Saturday, Feb. 5 drawing is an estimated annuity value of $137 million, with an estimated cash option of $94.4 million.
