ESSEX, MD—A Baltimore County woman’s last-minute decision to buy a Pick 5 lottery ticket at a 7-Eleven turned out to be a life-changing one. An Essex resident won $50,000 in the December 1 evening Pick 5 drawing.

The winner, a stay-at-home wife from Essex, and her husband usually buy lottery tickets at their regular Royal Farms store. However, they stopped at a 7-Eleven in Middle River for other reasons and she decided to purchase a few quick-pick tickets on a whim.

“I wasn’t going to buy anything at first,” she told lottery officials. “But, I had a few extra dollars so I went ahead and bought some quick-pick games out of the machine.”

The $1 winning Pick 5 ticket was a straight bet, generated by the machine. The couple left the store without checking the tickets that night.

“I was so tired that night, I just fell asleep without looking at them,” the winner admitted.

It was only on Monday morning when she scanned the tickets using the Maryland Lottery app on her phone that she discovered her incredible win. She recounted her disbelief, saying, “I was hysterical, crying and laughing at the same time.  I could hardly talk when I called my husband at work to tell him the news.”

Initially, her husband thought something was wrong when she called him at work.

“At first, I thought something bad had happened,” he recalled, before realizing the news was incredibly good.

The winner plans to use the prize money to support family members and make the holidays special for her grandchildren. She credits her late father with her lucky win.

The winning Pick 5 ticket was sold at the 7-Eleven located at 11500 Pocomoke Court in Middle River.

This article was written with the assistance of AI and reviewed by a human editor.

Photo via Maryland Lottery