$24 Million Winning Mega Millions Ticket Sold In Baltimore

Thursday, September 11, 2008 posted 11:30 AM EDT

Pigtown's lucky charm worked her magic Tuesday evening -- and a $24 million lottery winner can thank her.

For about two months, Marlene Webster has kissed the lottery tickets -- even scratch-offs -- she sold behind the bar at Carroll Station, her family's restaurant on Washington Boulevard. Customers have won as much as $600 and as little as $1.

But Webster confirmed her reputation at 6:22 p.m. Tuesday, when she pecked a Mega Millions ticket now worth an estimated $24 million.

"That's my signature thingamajiggy now," she said.

The winner, with a ticket matching all six numbers -- 22, 23, 28, 49, 52 and Mega Ball 2 -- had not emerged as of this evening.

But Webster and her younger brother, Robert Lyseight, who runs the restaurant, have a good idea who it is.

It was either someone from the Tuesday night pool league or perhaps a neighborhood resident, they said. The customer bought $5 worth of "quick pick" tickets, letting the machine select the numbers.

Carroll Station gets a prize of its own, beyond the new "Jackpot" banner hanging from the blue awning outside.

The restaurant will receive a $25,000 "agent bonus" for making the winning sale, which Lyseight said he will invest in the business.

"It's a boost. It's a well-needed boost," he said.

Lyseight opened the restaurant a year and a half ago, with help from a friend and his Jamaican-born sister, brother and mother.

Webster repeated her tradition today for customers who bought lottery tickets. But lottery office workers who walked over from Montgomery Park could only order the Caribbean or American favorites for lunch. The office building houses the Maryland State Lottery Agency, and its employees are not allowed to play.

Carroll Station began selling lottery tickets about four months ago, and slowly more and more regulars have started to buy them there, Lyseight said.

Three Mega Millions tickets -- not sold in Maryland -- matched five numbers for the second-tier prize of $250,000.

Another ticket sold in Maryland won a third-tier prize of $10,000 in Tuesday night's drawing, said state lottery spokeswoman Carole Everett.

Since January, 26 Maryland residents have won second-tier prizes, she said.

The last local jackpot winners were a mother and daughter from Essex, who won $27 million last October.

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