Maryland woman's purse clean-out reveals $50,007 lottery prize

March 20 (UPI) -- A Maryland woman who never checks her lottery tickets until her purse pocket is full discovered she had won a $50,007 Powerball prize weeks earlier.

The Annapolis woman, identified by the nickname Cher, told Maryland Lottery officials she purchased a ticket for the March 4 Powerball drawing at the Giant store in Annapolis and stuck it in a dedicated pocket in her purse.

"I don't check the tickets until they no longer fit in the lottery pocket in my purse," Cher explained.

She said she finally ran out of space last week and took her tickets to the store to scan. She said she asked a clerk for help when scanning the March 4 ticket resulted in an unclear message.

"Her eyes got so big when she checked my ticket on the lottery terminal," the winner recalled. "She said, 'We can't cash that here.'"

The woman discovered she had won $50,000 on one line of her ticket, with another line earning her $7.

"Between the clerk's reaction and what she told me, I figured that I'd won pretty big. My knees were weak and I was trying not to cry, but I held it together until I got in my car," she recalled.

Cher said her plans for the prize money include paying off medical debt and making some household repairs.