Husband buys winning MD lottery ticket to cheer teacher up

A teacher and her husband can afford a down payment on a house after he bought a lottery ticket to cheer her up.

Robyn Mejia, a mother of two who’s been teaching for 18 years, was having a “rough week” when her husband brought home the “Ca$h to Go!” scratch-off ticket on March 12, the Maryland Lottery said in an April 11 news release.

The couple had a hard time believing it when Mejia scratched the $5 ticket and saw she won a $50,000 top prize.

“My husband took the ticket to the store to scan it, just to be sure it was real,” Mejia, who lives in Frederick, told lottery officials. “We also asked my brother-in-law to come over and scan it on the Maryland Lottery app.”

Mejia said she stored the ticket in a safe until she could go to Baltimore to claim her prize during spring break.

The couple, who plays the lottery “maybe once a year,” plans to put the money toward a new house, Mejia said.

“We have been saving money for a down payment on a house, thinking we would be ready by the end of the year,” Mejia said, according to lottery officials. “But now, we don’t have to wait!”

Mejia’s husband bought the ticket at a 7-Eleven in Thurmont, the lottery said. The store will get a $500 bonus.