Powerball player buys ticket with $4 and wins big. Then friend keeps ticket safe

An occasional lottery player had a little extra cash on hand at the grocery store, so she decided to buy a couple tickets in Maryland.

The mom used the $4 on a Mega Millions ticket as well as a Powerball ticket for the June 22 drawing, according to lottery officials.

She didn’t win anything from the Mega Millions ticket, but then she checked the Powerball drawing.

She matched four white balls and the red Powerball to win a third-tier prize of $50,000, the Maryland Lottery said in a July 1 news release.

The Cecil County woman was sitting in her car when her friend reminded her to check her numbers, she told lottery officials. At first she didn’t believe what she was seeing.

“Oh, is that $500? Is that $5,000? Is that $50,000?” she recalled thinking.

She said she signed the back of her ticket and hid it at her friend’s home for safekeeping until she could claim the prize in Baltimore.

“He was very excited,” the winner told lottery officials.

She said she plans to put the money toward her retirement fund.

Cecil County is about a 50-mile drive northeast from Baltimore.

What to know about Powerball

To score the jackpot in the Powerball, a player must match all five white balls and the red Powerball.

The odds of scoring the jackpot prize are 1 in 292,201,338.

Tickets can be bought on the day of the drawing, but sales times and price vary by state.

Drawings are broadcast Saturdays, Mondays and Wednesdays at 10:59 p.m. ET and can be streamed online.

Powerball is played in 45 states, Washington, D.C., Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands.

This story was originally published July 4, 2024 at 9:10 AM with the headline "Powerball player buys ticket with $4 and wins big. Then friend keeps ticket safe."