Business & Tech
Wedding Anniversary Celebrated With Second Lottery Prize
A Montgomery County couple won two Maryland Lottery prizes in their first year of marriage, both tickets purchased at a Gaithersburg store.
GAITHERSBURG, MD — June is one lucky month for Brookeville newlyweds Nelson and Tais Daniela Mendes, who will soon celebrate their one-year wedding anniversary and just claimed their second major Maryland Lottery scratch-off win of the year, according to a news release.
The couple arrived at Lottery headquarters in Baltimore last week to claim a $10,000 prize on a 50x The Cash instant ticket. In February, they cashed in a $20,000 top-prize winning Ravens scratch-off. Both winning tickets were purchased at the same Montgomery County Lottery retailer: the 7-Eleven at 8035 Snouffer School Road in Gaithersburg.
“It was lunch time so I decided to stop by the 7-Eleven near my home to buy some lunch,” Tais Daniela Mendes told Lottery officials. “I had a little bit of change left over so I figured I’d try a scratch-off. I like to try different tickets every so often so I bought a 50x The Cash scratch-off since I had never played it before.”
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Tais Daniela took her $10 instant ticket home and put it on the counter, where she almost forgot about it. “My kids reminded me that I hadn’t scratched it yet,” said the 40-year-old in the news release. “After I finished scratching the ticket, I could not believe that it was saying that, once again, I had won big playing the Maryland Lottery. I waited for Nelson to get home to make sure that I had won.”
Her husband couldn’t believe their luck. “To win one time is amazing but to win twice, this is just shocking,” said Nelson. “My wife is proving to be one of the luckiest people I know. This is just fantastic.”
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Owners of a landscaping business, the Montgomery County couple plans to pay bills with the prize and host a few family gatherings to celebrate personal milestones. “It’s our one-year anniversary this month and the kids’ birthdays’ are coming up,” Tais Daniela said. “We’ll be having a lot of parties soon.”
»Photo: Lucky Brookeville newlyweds Nelson and Tais Daniela Mendes just claimed their second major scratch-off prize of 2017. Courtesy of Maryland Lottery
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