DISTRICT HEIGHTS, MD — A quick-thinking father from District Heights turned a near-laundry disaster into a $50,000 Powerball prize after retrieving his winning ticket moments before it would have been ruined.
Eric Cotton, a Prince George’s County father of two, realized his girlfriend had begun loading the washing machine with a pair of pants that still held four Powerball tickets in the pockets. Acting fast, he retrieved the tickets just in time, narrowly saving them from being soaked.
After pulling the tickets from the pocket, Cotton scanned them using the Maryland Lottery app. The first three yielded no results, but the fourth ticket revealed he had won $50,000 by matching four of the five white balls and the Powerball from the November 6 drawing.
The regular lottery player purchased the lucky quick-pick ticket at Kaywood Liquors in Mount Rainier. Cotton says he plans to save most of the winnings to buy a house for his family, with some of the funds set aside for his daughter’s birthday celebration.