He Won $50,000 in Front of a Shop Full of People and Told Them He'd Won $5

He is a frequent player, so buying the ticket was routine: a Quick Pick from Korner Liquors at 3120 Old Washington Road in Waldorf, then straight back into the work. Errands, clients, the usual. Checking a lottery ticket is one of those jobs that keeps sliding down the list when the list is already long, and his sat unchecked for three days.

When he finally scanned it at a store, the terminal confirmed a third-tier Powerball prize of $50,000. Other customers noticed, worked out roughly what had happened and started congratulating him. He did not want the attention. Asked what he had won, he told them $5, pocketed the ticket and left.

He took the ticket home and rang his daughter. She did not buy it either, at least not straight away. "I thought he was playing," she said. "Are you sure you won?" She went with him to Maryland Lottery headquarters in Baltimore on 2 September to claim.

He has been a mechanic for close to fifty years and describes his life as a simple one, which is roughly how he described his plans for the money: he does not really have any. "I just want to sit down," he said. The detail that says the most about him is the logistics of the claim itself. He told the Lottery he often has to switch his phone off simply to get through a day's work without interruption. To make the trip to Baltimore and collect $50,000, he switched it off again.

Korner Liquors is having a year. The mechanic's ticket is the third notable Powerball payout tied to the store in 2026: a ticket bought there in May and claimed in late July won another Charles County man a $50,000 third-tier prize, and a separate ticket sold at the same counter for the 19 August drawing produced yet another $50,000 win. The shop has traded from the same Waldorf address since 1971. Maryland retailers that sell winning tickets earn a bonus commission on top of their normal sales, which is why a run like this is worth something to the store as well as to the players.

The $50,000 tier is what a ticket pays when it matches four of the first five numbers plus the red Powerball. Maryland players have 182 days from the drawing date to come forward. Powerball drawings are held on Monday, Wednesday and Saturday nights, tickets cost $2, and the jackpot starts at $20 million and grows every time nobody takes it.

Powerball tickets are sold across most US states as well as Washington DC, Puerto Rico, the US Virgin Islands and the United Kingdom. Players elsewhere can use a licensed lottery courier, which buys an official ticket on your behalf and holds it securely. Must be 18 or over - in Maryland, as in most states, that is the floor.