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Lottery officials say that a Westminster man going by the name “Bear" - a moniker bestowed upon him by friends - became the first top-prize winner in the "Cash is King" scratch-off game, winning a cool $2 million on a ticket bought late on Thanksgiving night at Jiffy Mart in his hometown.
The 43-year-old man said that he usually scratches and scans his instant tickets at Lottery stores, but on Thanksgiving night he went home without doing so.
He was in for quite a surprise the next morning when he woke up at 5:30 a.m., dreaming big when he scratched the ticket, hoping for the best. He got the best.
"I won on a $30 ticket before, but this time there were a lot more zeroes," Bear said. "It was jaw-dropping when I realized how much I won."
Despite the hour, Bear couldn't help but wake up his wife to let her know they had entered a new tax bracket. He mused that “she didn’t believe it then, and she still doesn’t believe it now.”
Bear, a subcontractor for a construction company in the region, said that it is unclear how his family will spend the life-altering windfall of cash, and both her and his wife plan to keep working at their current jobs, setting aside some money for his young children.
“It is still early on,” he said. “I am not sure what we are going to do, but we will make smart decisions with the money.”
Bear and his family weren’t the only ones feeling lucky after the big win. The Jiffy Mart location on Magna Way where he bought the ticket will also get a $2,000 bonus from the Maryland Lottery for selling the top-prize winning scratch-off.
There are still four $2 million top-prize winning “Cash is King” tickets out there in Maryland, as well as four $50,000 second-tier prizes, and seven $10,000 third-tier prizes.
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