A Maryland woman won $100,000 after two identical lottery tickets both hit the same Pick 5 drawing, a shock that forced her to pull over.
The Silver Spring resident bought a pair of $1 tickets for the Maryland Lottery Pick 5 drawings on Sept. 27, both carrying the same numbers she always plays: 62626.
UPI reported that both tickets matched the evening drawing, delivering two $50,000 prizes and a combined $100,000 windfall from a $2 outlay at a local market.
She purchased the tickets at State Line Market on Eastern Avenue in Silver Spring. The next day, when she checked the results, the surprise hit hard enough that she stopped the car.
"I had to pull over," she said.
She placed bets on both the midday and evening Pick 5 drawings that day. The tickets that paid were the ones that lined up with the evening numbers.
Maryland Lottery officials learned the details from the winner herself. She was not named in the report.
The numbers were no last-minute pick. She told lottery officials she uses 62626 every time. Buying two identical tickets on the same draw turned a familiar habit into a six-figure return.
A portion of the prize money, she said, will go toward home improvement projects.
Pick 5 is a straight numbers game. Players choose five digits and can buy multiple tickets for the same combination across the day’s drawings. In this case, two $1 tickets on the same set of numbers produced two separate $50,000 prizes when the evening draw came in.
That is how the system is supposed to work. You pay your dollar, you match the draw, you collect. No committee decides who deserves it. No agency reallocates the pot after the fact.
The winner checked the results herself the following day and got the news while she was on the road. Shock is a normal response when two cheap tickets suddenly equal a six-figure check.
State Line Market on Eastern Avenue rang up the sale. Silver Spring got another local lottery story. The Maryland Lottery got another claim to process. And one resident who sticks with the same five digits walked away with $100,000 to put into her house.
When ordinary people follow the rules and catch a break, the right response is simple: good for them. Keep the game honest, pay the winners, and let the rest of us get back to work.
