Lucky winner buys a scratch-off ticket, turns $10 into $100K

A lottery player from Delaware recently celebrated the biggest win of his life.

The fortunate man named Michael Pendexter won one of the top prizes from the Maryland Lottery's $100,000 Crossword instant game.

The lucky Kenty County resident was on his lunch break as a meter reader when he decided to purchase a few scratch-off tickets.

Pendexter visited Country Farm in Salisbury, Maryland, and purchased two tickets, one ticket from the 8th edition of the $100,000 Crossword game and another ticket, Win $50, $100 or $200.

The lottery player didn't wait for long and scratched the two tickets in his car.

While the Win $50, $100 or $200 had no prize, the man started matching words from the $100,000 Crossword scratch-off.

One after the other, in the end, Pendexter scratched off all 10 words, granting him the grand prize of the popular $10 scratch-off game.

The player won the biggest prize of his life

The fortunate lottery winner recently visited the Maryland Lottery headquarters in Baltimore to claim his prize, a statement reveals.

Recalling the day he won the top prize from $100,000 Crossword, the man said: "I was scratching off the letters and I lost track of how many words I had. When I looked over it again, I had all 10 words."

Despite seeing all 10 words, Pendexter wanted to make sure that he indeed won the top prize from the scratch-off ticket, which is why he returned to the store he purchased the ticket from and scanned it.

Once he saw the message "Congratulations!", the man sent a text to his wife, Carrie.

The message read: "I won the biggest amount of my life," the fortunate man's wife said, admitting that immediately after receiving the text she called her husband.

Asked what he plans to do with the windfall, Pendexter said that he and his wife want to buy a home for their big family.

The couple are parents to a total of four adult children.

Besides a new home, the winner said he wants to buy his wife a new car.

Only a few top-tier prizes from $100,000 Crossword remain in play

The launch of the 8th edition of Maryland Lottery's $100,000 Crossword saw a total of eight prizes of $100,000 each.

After the fortunate man's recent win, now, there is only one $100,000 prize remaining in play.

A second-tier prize from the game offers $10,000 and just like the top tier, there's one such prize left for grabs.

According to the Maryland Lottery, the overall chances of winning a prize from the $100,000 Crossword game are 1 in 3.09.

Image credit: Maryland Lottery