Couldn’t sleep all night after learning of his big win
A loyal Lottery player from Clarksburg discovered that you can win — and win big — by playing random numbers on a Mega Millions ticket. He added the Megaplier to a ticket he bought in Germantown for the Jan. 3 drawing and wound up $40,000 richer!
“I always play,” said the happy winner, enjoying his first visit to the Lottery Winner’s Circle to claim the biggest prize of his life. “I always choose my own numbers and I always play $3 (on Mega Millions and Powerball).”
As for the personal set of numbers that won the third-tier prize, the winner said he just made them up. “The numbers don’t mean anything to me. They were random.”
The Montgomery County man bought his ticket at Milestone Shell located at 21000 Frederick Road in Germantown. After work, he came home, took a shower and then checked the $3 ticket for a win. He couldn’t believe his luck.
“I didn’t sleep that night,” he said. “I did some research on it, signed the back and put it in the safe.”
He won a third-tier prize of $10,000. Because the Megaplier was x4, it quadrupled his prize to $40,000.
The married father of one has already shared the great news with his son. He planned to surprise his wife by announcing his big win after claiming the prize. He plans to pay bills with the money and start making plans for a trip to Europe.
“I’ve been working for 30 years and have never taken a big vacation,” said the Washington, D.C. security guard. He also plans to continue playing random numbers on tickets since it led to such great success. In fact, the lucky player was on his way to a Lottery retailer later in the day to try some more random numbers on a Powerball ticket for the Monday night drawing.
The Powerball jackpot rolled to an estimated annuity of $285 million for the Jan. 13 drawing with an estimated cash option of $124.9 million. The Jan. 14 Mega Millions drawing has an estimated jackpot annuity of $95 million, with an estimated cash option of $41.6 million.
