BALTIMORE (Aug. 26, 2016)—A Mechanicsville retiree picked up something new during a routine shopping trip at McKay's Food & Drug in Charlotte Hall—a $775,000 jackpot-winning Multi-Match ticket.
Days passed before the loyal player realized he'd won big in the Monday, Aug. 22, drawing because he and his wife were out of town visiting a family member. The retired plumber regularly buys groceries, Multi-Match and Cash4Life tickets at the St. Mary's County store so a friend phoned the out-of-town duo when she heard the store sold the winning ticket.
"I've been playing Multi-Match forever, playing the same set of numbers," he said.
In Multi-Match, players can select their own combinations of six numbers from 1 to 43, and the Lottery terminal then quick picks two additional lines of six numbers. Each set of three lines costs $2. The lucky winner purchased five lines of his regular numbers, which gave him another 10 lines randomly picked by the Lottery terminal. He bought the two-draw ticket for a total of $20 on Aug. 20. Players win the jackpot if any single line of their ticket matches all six of the numbers drawn.
When the 65-year-old checked the winning numbers using the Maryland Lottery app on his phone, he didn't realize that it was one of the quick-pick lines that had delivered the jackpot win. He and his wife didn't have the lucky ticket with them on their trip, so they weren't able to check it.
"We were joking about the fact it could be us," he said.
When they arrived home on Aug. 23, the night after the drawing, he looked closely at the ticket. His wife was packing her lunch for the next day while he carefully checked his numbers. "I said, 'Honey, it's us!' " her husband said. "She didn't believe me."
"He had to literally show me the ticket," she said.
They kept their jackpot win a secret until claiming their prize at Lottery headquarters. Next on their agenda was a family pizza party so they could tell their adult kids the great news. The couple took the $425,000 cash option and plan to use it to allow the wife to retire from her job as an accountant in Charles County. They will share some of the prize with their children, give some money to charity, remodel their decades-old kitchen and put the rest of the prize in the bank.
The retailer is a winner as well. For selling the jackpot-winning ticket, McKay's Food & Drug will receive a $1,000 bonus from the Maryland Lottery.