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For nearly a month "Private Person" was sitting on a golden Powerball ticket worth $1 million and didn't have a clue - and was even unsure where he picked up the big winner.
The 41-year-old instantly became a millionaire when the balls were drawn for the Wednesday, Sept. 30 Powerball drawing, but he didn't realize until he went to check his numbers earlier this week.
As it turns out, the ticket was bought on the day of the drawing at Golden Ring Liquors on Philadelphia Road in Rosedale as the Lottery player was heading to a BYOB party and stopped to pick up some supplies.
He recalled that he was shopping at the store and added a few Powerball tickets to his purchase as the jackpot was then approaching $1 billion.
"I play when I get a chance. Not every time, but if I'm in a store, I usually get a couple," he said, adding that he has a few places where he keeps recently purchased tickets, including in an envelope inside his car.
He'll then check them days, sometimes weeks later. He's happy he checked this one.
"I keep them everywhere," he mused."I check them and write what each is worth, then I go cash them in."
Previously, "Private Person's" largest single lotto prize was $500, which added up to around $1,000 total with other smaller wins that piled up before he got to cash them in.
This time he had to head to Lottery Headquarters to get his winnings.
“I kept saying I need to check those tickets,” he said. Using the Lottery app on his phone, he scanned a stack of tickets and got the usual “not a winner” message or small-prize notifications.
Then came the big winner.
"I had to keep looking at it," he exclaimed, thinking initially it was a $100,000 win - still not bad - but then noticed there was an extra 0 at the end, and he realized that he had won a seven-figure prize.
He went on to check the ticket several more times at home “and again before I came here,” he said on the day he claimed his prize, joking that he played a couple more Lottery games on his way to Baltimore.
The "Private Person," said that he simply went about his business after claiming the cash, which the father plans to invest in his young son's future.
"I went to work like nothing happened. Tomorrow I'm going to work like nothing happened," he said, and plans to tell nobody about it "except maybe years from now.
"I'm a private person."
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