Husband's research pays off with $500,000 lottery win

July 17 (UPI) -- A Maryland woman credited her husband's research with helping them to win $500,000 from a Maryland Lottery scratch-off ticket.

The Dundalk woman told Maryland Lottery officials she and her husband often play the lottery together.

"We play because we love it," she said. "It's something we can have fun with together. We once won $500. That was exciting."

The woman said she was heading to the store in late June when her husband asked her to pick up a specific scratch-off game.

"I'd been checking the remaining big prizes on the lottery website and Gifts of Green had a few top prizes still available," the husband said. "So that was the one."

The woman picked up two of the tickets, and she and her husband scratched them off together at home.

"My eyes went back and forth between the [dollar sign] symbol and the $500,000 beneath it and the game's rules," the wife said. "I could not believe what I was seeing."

Her husband noticed something was unusual.

"When I looked in her eyes and heard the tremor in her voice, I knew it was something big," he said.

The couple said their $500,000 prize will go toward a new vehicle and saving for their impending retirement.

"We've been trying to figuring out how retirement was going to work for us. This takes away so many of the worries," the wife said.