A mum who scooped a USD 50,000 jackpot has told how she was hard-pressed to convince her pal it was real because she won on April Fools’ Day.
The winner – from Owings Mills, in the US state of Maryland – called a pal to break the news to them.
But she said in a statement obtained by Newsflash from the Maryland Lottery on Monday, 3rd April: “She called me back in an hour and said, ‘It’s April Fools’ Day. Is this an April Fools’ Day joke?’ I told her ‘No!’”
Maryland Lottery officials said that the winner wants to stay anonymous and would be named only as ‘Lottery Queen’.
They said that she had landed the USD 50,000 (GBP 40,000) top prize by playing a USD 20 (GBP 16.04) cash scratch-off lottery game.
The Maryland Lottery statement also said: “The mother of one decided to buy a few tickets on Saturday before the big storm hit.”
The woman explained: “I was going to be home all day and I didn’t have anything to do.”
The statement continued: “The Baltimore County resident visited Royal Farms #140 located at 10988 Red Run Boulevard in Owings Mills to buy her Pick 3/4/5 tickets and a scratch-off. She took them home and immediately saw a match with one of the winning numbers on the USD 50,000 Cash game.”
She added: “I said, ‘Oh, 22, here’s a 22′. When I saw the USD 50,000 amount, I said, ‘No way!’.”
The statement said: “She found herself pacing her apartment for about an hour, looking at the scratch-off and trying to decide who to call.
“‘Lottery Queen’ verified the win using the Lottery app on her phone, signed and photographed the scratch-off and hid the instant ticket until she could claim the prize on 3rd April at Lottery headquarters in Baltimore.
“She then called her sister to share the lucky scratch-off’s location in case anything happened to her before Monday!”
The lucky winner said: “From that point on, I don’t think I slept. It was really exciting.”
The Maryland Lottery said that the ‘Lottery Queen’ plans to pay bills with the prize and deposit most of it into her retirement fund.
