Prince George’s County student claims $1 million prize
A Bowie man who plays Powerball every now and then walked into Maryland Lottery headquarters as its newest millionaire on Monday. The sporadic pattern that governs his Lottery purchases didn’t stop him from winning the game’s second-tier prize in the Sept. 29 drawing. Lottery luck brought him a whole lot of cash.
“I was gassing up my car and just decided to get a Mega Millions and Powerball ticket,” said the 29-year-old student. “Every now and then, it occurs to me. Sometimes I think about it, others I don’t.” Luckily, Thursday’s stop for gas at Bowie Exxon also turned into a Lottery stop. He got the shock of his life about 72 hours later after checking the weekend results on mdlottery.com.
Remarkably calm for one with $1 million more in the bank than he had last week, our winner admitted that appearances can be deceiving. “I’m going a million miles an hour on the inside, have been since Sunday afternoon.” That inner upheaval kept him awake since he learned of his good fortune.
“I didn’t sleep a wink last night, could barely close my eyes,” he said. “I’ve just been thinking and thinking and planning and planning.” He still doesn’t have immediate plans for his Powerball winnings. “I know just two things as of right now. I’m going to take very good care of this money and I’ll be traveling. After that, who knows?”
Our winner was the only Marylander and one of two winners in the country to score the $1 million prize. No one hit the jackpot, which rolled to $229 million for the Wednesday, Oct. 3 drawing. The cash option is set at $134.3 million.
The lucky Lottery retailer is Bowie Exxon at 1500 Northwest Crain Highway in Bowie. The sale of the $1 million Powerball ticket will earn the gas station a $2,500 bonus from the Lottery.
