MDLottery

A dedicated scratch-off player of 30 years almost missed a winning combination on the 7^th edition of the Deluxe Crossword game. The Montgomery County resident found four of eight winning words and only resumed scratching off the rest of the puzzles when a ticket scanner reported he won a $50,000 top prize.

The Germantown man said the excitement began when he scratched off four black words on one of the two crossword puzzles in the game. He took the winning instant ticket to a Lottery retailer to retrieve what he thought was a $5 prize. When he scanned his scratch-off to verify the win, he learned his prize was much more than $5.

Per the Maryland Lottery: “A Montgomery County mother of four and her husband will never forget two startling experiences that occurred on the same day. First, she discovered she was pregnant with the couple’s fifth child, and later she won $50,000 on a Six Figuresscratch-off.

“Two gifts for me!” the Germantown woman said with a smile. “It was a big surprise.”

So, it wasn’t the lottery purchase itself that was unusual for the 61-year-old Walmart employee, for she’s played often over the years. And, it wasn’t winning a significant prize, for she’s won big prizes. What was different?

“I usually play the Lottery just because I enjoy it,” the Germantown resident explained. “I bought this particular ticket, though, because of a feeling.” She awoke with a strange need to buy a Pick 5 ticket and a feeling that it would pay off. Her intuition didn’t give her “a specific Pick 5number,” she said. Covering all of her bases, she bought tickets for that day and the next while at Sugarloaf Wine Cellar in Germantown. “It was such a strange, super-specific feeling that I wasn’t going to ignore it.”