"The snake scared me back in," the woman said.
She said about an hour passed before she sent her dog, Buddy the beagle, outside to ensure the serpent had moved along.
The woman said she watched as Buddy sniffed around near the door and determined the snake had left the area.
She then went to Marlboro Country Liquors in Upper Marlboro and played her lucky numbers, 8, 9, 10 and 12.
The game, played later than she had intended, won her $29,295.70. She said it wasn't her first brush with Racetrax luck.
"Every few days we're hitting something," she said.
The woman's husband, a fellow Racetrax fan, won $725.20 from the game when the coupe stopped by a store on their way to claim her prize from lottery headquarters on Tuesday.
