Feb. 25 (UPI) -- A Maryland woman said following her mother's lead caused her to win a $50,000 prize from a Maryland Lottery Fast Play game.
The 33-year-old Essex woman told Maryland Lottery officials she normally plays scratch-off games, but she decided to try something new while doing laundry with her mother at Baltimore's Hyde Park Station shopping center.
The woman said she and her mother went into the nearby Food Lion store while waiting for their clothes to dry, and the older woman bought some Fast Play lottery tickets.
The player said she decided to follow her mother's lead and bought three $5 Jack Frost Jackpot Fast Play games.
The younger woman said her third ticket turned out to be a $50,000 winner.
"I looked at the symbols and looked at the prize amount and looked back at the symbols," the winner recalled.
She said she used the Maryland Lottery smartphone app to double check that she was seeing the ticket correctly.
"I showed my mother the message on the phone and she freaked out," she said. "I never thought in a million years I would win something like this."
The woman visited lottery headquarters on Wednesday -- her birthday -- to collect her prize.
The winner said her prize money will most likely go into savings.
