ESSEX, MD – It’s not every day someone with a royal title wins big with the Maryland Lottery, but that’s just what happened to a Baltimore man in the June 29 Powerball drawing.

“Lord Stephen” didn’t realize his good fortune until nearly two months after the drawing.

A creature of habit, the Scottish lord – who is known to don a kilt from time to time – stops by Essex Liquors at 904 Eastern Boulevard regularly to buy $20 worth of quick-pick Powerball tickets for every drawing. The 62-year-old stores them and doesn’t necessarily check the tickets for winners right away.

Every so often, an Essex Liquors staffer will tell him the store sold a big winning ticket and suggest “Lord Stephen” check his royal holdings. That suggestion led the lord to bring a stack of Powerball tickets to the shop on August 21 to scan them for winning tickets.

“Nothing. Nothing. $4. Nothing. $100 (that’s good). Then $50,000! I was so excited I ran out of the store and had to check to make sure I didn’t drop the ticket,” he said while claiming his prize August 23 at Maryland Lottery headquarters in Baltimore.

After discovering his big win, he had trouble sleeping. His royal title came without administrative authority or a princely purse so $50,000 is a very nice windfall.

“I’ve been a wreck all week!” he proclaimed.

He let a few friends know about his luck and their collective responses helped him set a new royal agenda.

“When I was telling my friends, they all said I could use the money to pay for my new bathroom,” he said. The winner recently began a remodeling project for his throne room.

“Lord Stephen” plans to return soon to Essex Liquors not only to continue buying Powerball tickets but also “to buy a bottle of champagne.”