BALTIMORE, MD—A Nottingham man’s solo lunch break turned into a winning lottery moment after a spontaneous decision led to a $57,777 prize. The lucky winner, who chose to remain anonymous, claimed his prize on July 30 at Maryland Lottery headquarters.
The man, whose friends and colleagues are avid lottery players, said he typically plays “a little bit” himself. On a recent workday, he found himself eating alone at the Ashland Café in Cockeysville. With time to kill before his food was ready, he purchased four scratch-off tickets.
“There was no one to eat lunch with, so I got four scratch-off tickets to kill time,” he said.
He ended up taking the tickets back to his office and, a little while later, decided to scratch them. The very first one he played, a Lucky 7s Tripler ticket, revealed an auto-win symbol for the top prize of $57,777.
“I was like, ‘What?’ and I put it aside,” he said.
After scratching the other tickets and scanning them with the Maryland Lottery app, he scanned the Lucky 7s Tripler ticket and it confirmed his big win.
He shared the good news with his wife, who was initially skeptical. “She said, ‘That’s not real,'” he recalled.
The prize, however, was very real. The winner plans to use the money to pay for his children’s tuition and improve his finances.
“It’ll let me start putting more in my 401(k),” he said.
Photo via Pexels
