A small fortune remains unclaimed in Rockville. The Maryland Lottery says five separate tickets sold at the same store each won $50,000 in a single drawing, and as of Sept. 28, not one of them has been claimed.
According to the Maryland Lottery, the midday Pick 5 drawing on Sept. 22 produced five winning tickets that each matched the numbers 88768 in the exact order they were drawn, netting $50,000 apiece. All five were sold at Ollie's Beer, Wine & Deli, located at 2011 Veirs Mill Road in Rockville. Combined, the five tickets represent $250,000 in prizes still sitting unredeemed nearly a week later.
It's not the first time the little deli has made lottery headlines. In January 2024, a Rockville man told Patch he was stunned to win the top prize in the Maryland Lottery's $50,000 Cash scratch-off game on a ticket he bought at the same store. That game, which debuted in December 2022, still had 84 top prizes left to be won at the time, per the same report. Ollie's received a $500 bonus from the state for selling that particular winning ticket, though there's no indication the shop received any similar bonus tied to this month's five Pick 5 winners.
A Big Week for Maryland Lottery Winners
Ollie's wasn't the only hot spot for lottery luck last week. The Maryland Lottery also reported that the Sept. 27 evening Pick 5 drawing, with the winning number 62626, produced 14 more $50,000 tickets, ten of which were sold at a single Exxon station in Hanover. Between the two locations, 15 separate Pick 5 tickets worth a combined $750,000 were sold in less than a week.
The single largest prize of the week, though, went to a scratch-off player rather than a Pick 5 player. A High Voltage scratch-off ticket sold at Hillandale Beer & Wine in Silver Spring won $100,000, the lottery's report shows. Altogether, 50 tickets statewide delivered prizes of at least $10,000 during the week of Sept. 21 through Sept. 27, and total winnings across all prizes topped $29.5 million statewide.
What Happens Next for the Unclaimed Tickets
For now, the identity of whoever is holding those five tickets from Ollie's remains a mystery, and the lottery's report does not say whether one person, several people, or a group of players picked them up. Whoever they are, the clock is ticking in a general sense: Maryland Lottery draw-game winners have 182 days from the date of the drawing to come forward and claim their money.
Prizes above $25,000 can't just be cashed at the corner store, either. Winners have to redeem them in person at the Maryland Lottery's Customer Resource Center in Baltimore, which operates by appointment only. Until someone books that appointment, the $250,000 from Ollie's Beer, Wine & Deli stays right where it is: unclaimed.
