Lanham, MD – Clayton Heard, a retired healthcare worker from Lanham, experienced the excitement of Powerball fever as the jackpot soared to a staggering $1.08 billion on July 19.
Although a California player claimed the ultimate jackpot, Clayton found himself among the lucky winners in Maryland, securing a third-tier prize of $50,100 using numbers from an old ticket dating back to 1996.
A regular Powerball player, Clayton stumbled upon an old Lottery ticket from over two decades ago. With the current jackpot climbing to become the sixth-largest in the history of U.S. lotteries, Clayton decided to take a novel approach and test his luck with the numbers from the past, hoping they would bring him good fortune in 2023.
“I thought, ‘Let me play those numbers from 1996,’” he shared.
In the early hours of Thursday, July 20, Clayton woke up at 4 a.m. and scanned his three Powerball tickets. The first two were not winners, but the last one brought an unexpected burst of joy to his household.
To his delight, the Prince George’s County resident discovered that he had successfully matched four of the five numbers and the Powerball, securing a substantial $50,000 win. Additionally, on another line of the same $10 ticket, he managed to match three of the five numbers along with the Powerball, adding an extra $100 to his prize.
“I ran upstairs screaming. My family was wondering what was wrong,” Clayton said, wearing a bright smile.
His celebratory outburst also roused his wife from sleep, who later joined Clayton on a trip to Lottery headquarters to claim the prize. “I asked him if he won something. He was excited,” she recalled.
As a 67-year-old retiree, Clayton has expressed his passion for fishing and traveling. He shared that he intends to use the $50,100 prize to fund more travel adventures and make renovations to their home, with plans to upgrade the kitchen. “He promised to get me new kitchen countertops,” his wife happily explained.
The fortunate winning ticket was purchased at Forbes BP, located at 9701 Annapolis Road in Lanham, Maryland.