Hungry Howard Co. Man Wins $750K After Popping Into Store To Buy Chicken, Lotto Tickets

HOWARD COUNTY, MD — An Elkridge man hungry for a chicken box from Royal Farm ended up getting more than just a meal when he popped into the store recently.

Referred to as "Buzzsaw," the Howard County resident bought chicken and four Multi-Match lottery games that ended up nabbing him a $750,000 jackpot win.

“It was all about the chicken,” Buzzsaw said.

The avid lotto player usually buys tickets for eight out of 10 drawings in the Monday and Thursday rolling jackpot game. For his first two games, Buzzsaw picked a combination of six numbers and chose the quick-pick option for the remaining two games. In Multi-Match, a single game includes three sets of six numbers with two of the sets automatically being quick picks. Any of the three sets can win, so Buzzsaw had 12 shots at the jackpot. After finishing his chicken dinner at home, Buzzsaw went to bed.

“I usually don’t wake up at night,” he said, but on Feb. 6, he found himself lying awake in bed. The loyal player decided to check the four games on his Multi-Match ticket as long as he couldn’t sleep and he received a big surprise.

“I said, ‘Darn, that’s all six. I never won this kind of money before in my life,’” he recalled while claiming his prize on Feb. 7 at Maryland Lottery headquarters in Baltimore.

He hit the jackpot on one of the two games where he chose his own numbers; however, the win was on the second of the two quick-pick combinations for that game.

“I had nothing to do with it,” he said.

Buzzsaw plans to celebrate his win with a vacation, likely to the mountains of western Maryland. After that, he expects that he and his son will use a substantial portion of the winnings to buy a house.

Royal Farms #054 at 8268 Lark Brown Drive in Elkridge receives a $1,000 bonus from the Lottery for selling the jackpot-winning ticket.