MOCO Woman Buys $50,000 Scratch-Off At Giant Store

SILVER SPRING, MD — A Montgomery County woman retired as a school system employee needed part-time work to supplement her retirement income. The Burtonsville resident included a small weekly Lottery fund in her budget so she could keep playing her favorite scratch-offs.

That paid off to the tune of $50,000 after she bought a Joker’s Wild scratch-off, the Maryland Lottery said in a news release. Her $5 instant ticket — purchased at the Giant store at 12028 Cherry Hill Road in Silver Spring — carried the game’s $50,000 top prize.

After buying the instant ticket, the former school administrator took it to work with her. A few hours later she remembered the scratch-off. When she then scanned it using her Maryland Lottery app, the winner saw a message instructing her to see a Lottery retailer. She then scratched off the rest of the ticket, spotted her winning number match and confirmed that she won $50,000.

A big part of her budget involved paying off a debt, the winner said, which she can do with her Lottery prize. She told lottery officials the rest will be put toward savings and to donate to others, followed by a trip to Europe and to visit her adopted family in Kenya.

The grocery store will collect a $500 Lottery bonus for selling a $50,000 top-prize winning scratch-off.

The Joker’s Wild scratch-off went on sale July 22 with eight top prizes; six remain, the Lottery said on Aug. 14. The instant ticket also has more than 830,000 unclaimed prizes ranging from $5 to $5,000.