Aug. 19 (UPI) — A New Jersey family traveling home from a trip to North Carolina found a bathroom break in Maryland to be a lucky stop when they won a $2 million lottery jackpot.
The family members told Maryland Lottery officials they were headed to New Jersey after a trip to North Carolina when they stopped for a bathroom break at a 7-Eleven store in Germantown, Md.
The mother of the family said they decided to grab some lottery tickets while they were stopped.
“The cashier, for some reason, thought we wanted cigarettes,” the mother recalled. “She finally realized we wanted lottery and steered us to the vending machine.”
The family was back home in New Jersey when they discovered that one of the tickets for the July 24 Powerball drawing had won a $2 million jackpot.
“I couldn’t believe we matched all of the numbers except the Powerball,” the mother said. “I had to download the app so I could scan the ticket to know for sure.”
The ticket matched all of the drawn numbers except the Powerball, earning a $2 million prize.
“I had to look at the ticket several times,” the father said. “It’s amazing that we were only off by one number.”
The family returned to Maryland to collect their prize at lottery headquarters in Baltimore. They said they plan to use the winnings to pay off their debts and put the rest into savings.