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'Happy Mistake' Lands Harford County Man $50K 'Pick 5' Lottery Win

Opportunity knocked twice for a Harford County man who made the most at his second chance and won $50,000 playing his wife's license plate number on a Pick 5 Maryland Lottery ticket.

The winner was in Lottery Headquarters to claim a $50,000 prize.

The winner was in Lottery Headquarters to claim a $50,000 prize.

Photo Credit: Unsplash/Giorgio Trovato

The lucky Lottery player told officials that he thought he missed out on his chance for a big win last week when he saw his license plate numbers in the results of a recent Pick 5 drawing that he didn't hit on. 

However, fate had other plans for him.

According to Lottery officials, a week after that disappointment, a winning Pick 5 number he played based on different license plate numbers landed him a $50,000 win.

“It was killing me that I’d missed out on my plate,” the warehouse manager, who said he likes the daily Pick games. “So, I decided to play my wife’s tag numbers." 

Not long after the lucky midday drawing, the winner checked the results on his Maryland Lottery app, and he said he recognized the numbers immediately, but couldn’t remember the exact order of his wife’s license plate numbers, he said.

“I was pretty sure right away that I had a 'boxed' win for $10,000.” 

To win playing one’s Pick game numbers “boxed” requires only that all numbers be correct, but not necessarily in the exact order as those drawn. 

His ticket; however, was a $1 straight bet.

“I thought that maybe I had the order right, too, but wasn’t sure until I found the darn ticket," he added. "Those few minutes before locating it were torture.”

Sure enough, he hit all five numbers in the correct order, though there was a little bit of luck involved, as he actually had his wife's license plate out of order on accident.

“It turns out, though, that when I picked my numbers to play, I’d placed two numbers out of order,” he mused. "That’s what you call a happy mistake." 

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