Couple stops for gas on trip and buys Powerball ticket. Then comes big ‘surprise’

A couple bought a Powerball ticket “for fun” while getting gas on a road trip, and the wife thought they won $100.

Then she realized they won much more.

The Virginia parents of five took a trip up to the beach in Delaware, and they were driving home through Chester, Maryland, when they had to stop for gas, the Maryland Lottery said July 31.

They decided to buy five Powerball combinations and headed home.

“We just buy when we think of it for fun,” the husband told lottery officials. “We never really expect to win.”

The next day the wife checked the results from the July 12 Powerball drawing and saw the first combination on their ticket matched four out of five white balls. Her daughter told her that would be worth $100, lottery officials said.

Then the mom noticed their ticket matched the Powerball number, too, turning it into a $50,000 prize, according to the Maryland Lottery.

“Thirty-five dollars is the most I’ve ever won before,” the husband told lottery officials. “It was a happy surprise.”

What to know about Powerball

To score the jackpot in the Powerball, a player must match all five white balls and the red Powerball.

The odds of scoring the jackpot prize are 1 in 292,201,338.

Tickets can be bought on the day of the drawing, but sales times and price vary by state.

Drawings are broadcast Saturdays, Mondays and Wednesdays at 10:59 p.m. ET and can be streamed online.

Powerball is played in 45 states, Washington, D.C., Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands.