Six Numbers

NEW YORK - Powerball lottery officials suspected fraud: How could 110 players in the March 30 drawing get five of the six numbers right? That made them all second-prize winners and, given the number of tickets sold in the 29 states where the game is played, there should have been only four or five. But from state after state they kept coming in, the 1-in-3-million combination of 22, 28, 32, 33, 39. It took some time before the officials had the answer: The players got their numbers in fortune cookies, and all the cookies came from the same factory in Long Island City, Queens.

The public fascination with who won the record $587.5 million Powerball jackpot turned to Maryland on Friday, as reports surfaced that a customer at an Upper Marlboro gas station claimed he had the coveted winning ticket. Negassi Ghebre, acting manager of the Marlboro Village Exxon, said he was manning the cash register when the man walked in Thursday afternoon to check lottery tickets he had bought. "We gave him the winning numbers, then he matched them," Ghebre said. "He realized that he's the winner.

No one matched all six numbers in Saturday's $3 million Lotto, so Wednesday's prize will be worth $3.5 million, a lottery spokesman said.Carroll Hynson said yesterday that 63 people matched five of six numbers for a $958 prize. Also, 3,252 people matched four of six numbers. They will receive $32 each.The winning numbers drawn were 10-14-24-28-31-39.

Two Baltimore firefighters were injured Sunday morning while battling a blaze that started when a propane tank exploded, officials said, bringing to six the number of city firefighters injured since Saturday afternoon. The injuries were not considered serious, said Capt. Roman Clark, a fire department spokesman. The city firefighters union Local 734 said on its Twitter page that firefighters were called to the 400 block of N. Luzerne St. at about 9:30 a.m. Sunday for an explosion on the rear porch of a row home.

The jackpot in tomorrow's drawing of the Maryland Lotto game has been increased to $2.5 million after Wednesday's drawing failed to produce a winner.The numbers drawn Wednesday night were 04, 07, 12, 24, 25, 37.A lottery spokeswoman said 38 people correctly matched five of the six numbers; they are to collect $675 each.Another 1,632 bettors matched four of the six numbers drawn ednesday night. Each of their tickets is worth $26.Lotto sales for the drawing totaled $642,036.

Emma Jones, 54, thinks she just might hold the winning ticket.Welder Harry Bushrod believes he might.So does sales rep Inelda Abraham, as well as thousands more across Maryland and even some out-of-towners.All are pouring money into the state's pocketbook in hopes of getting rich quick in today's by hitting today's Lotto jackpot, which could exceed $14 million, the fourth-largest in state lottery history. In May 1988, four winners split the state's largest pot, $15 million.Carroll Hynson, spokesman for the Maryland State Lottery Agency, said today's sales of lottery tickets for the $14 million jackpot are still brisk.

Stolen car is said to contain pacemakersA 1990 Lincoln that was stolen in Baltimore Saturday night contained $250,000 worth of medical equipment for heart patients, a Pasadena man told city police.Joseph T. Murphy of Bayside Drive in Pasadena said his auto was stolen from the 100 block of West Mount Royal Avenue about 10:30 p.m. Saturday while he was attending a theater performance.Inside the car, he said, were implantable pacemakers that would be of no use to a car thief.Police were searching for the vehicle last night.

RICHMOND, Va. -- There is a dream common among regular lottery players: to wait until the jackpot reaches an astronomical sum and then to buy every possible number, guaranteeing a winner.In Virginia this month, one investment group came tantalizingly close to cornering the market on all possible combinations of six numbers from 1 to 44.State lottery officials say that the group bought 5 million of apossible 7 million tickets, at $1 each, in a lottery with a $27 million jackpot. Only an 11:15 p.m. purchase deadline -- five minutes before the state drawing on Feb. 15 -- prevented the group from buying the other 2 million possible number combinations.

The public fascination with who won the record $587.5 million Powerball jackpot turned to Maryland on Friday, as reports surfaced that a customer at an Upper Marlboro gas station claimed he had the coveted winning ticket. Negassi Ghebre, acting manager of the Marlboro Village Exxon, said he was manning the cash register when the man walked in Thursday afternoon to check lottery tickets he had bought. "We gave him the winning numbers, then he matched them," Ghebre said. "He realized that he's the winner.

NEW YORK - Powerball lottery officials suspected fraud: How could 110 players in the March 30 drawing get five of the six numbers right? That made them all second-prize winners and, given the number of tickets sold in the 29 states where the game is played, there should have been only four or five. But from state after state they kept coming in, the 1-in-3-million combination of 22, 28, 32, 33, 39. It took some time before the officials had the answer: The players got their numbers in fortune cookies, and all the cookies came from the same factory in Long Island City, Queens.

In Baltimore County It's no joke: Towson couple win $2.8 million TOWSON - When the director and an entourage from the Maryland Lottery showed up at Gwen Vaughan's house in Towson yesterday morning, everyone knew she had won $2.8 million. Everyone but her, that is. Husband Robert, 63, had kept the news a secret after receiving a telephone call from the lottery Monday. He told Gwen, 61, they had won $1,500 because their subscription ticket matched five out of six numbers in Saturday's Lotto drawing.

Six people have died in Howard County motor vehicle accidents this year, five more than at the same point last year.The two latest fatal accidents occurred over the weekend: at 10: 42 p.m. Saturday at U.S. 40 and Normandy Woods Drive in Ellicott City, and at 3: 42 p.m. Sunday at Route 175 and Interstate 95 in Jessup.A man driving a 1996 Freightliner tractor east on Route 175 and nearing I-95 reportedly ran a red light and struck a 1990 Mercury on the driver's side as it was entering Route 175 from an I-95 exit ramp, police said.

Oh, for the gift of prophecy yesterday, to be able to close your eyes and have these numbers come to mind: 11, 26, 30, 32, 41, 48.Instead, thousands of Marylanders had to rely on hunches, birthday combinations or in most cases the numbers randomly chosen by the Maryland Lottery's computer system as they hoped to win an $18 million Lotto jackpot -- third largest in the game's 11-year history.The big prize -- actually an annuity that would provide a single winner a before-tax payment of $900,000 a year for the next 20 years -- has been growing since March 19, when the Lotto game last had a ticket matching all six numbers.

If you're thinking about strolling across the street today to pick up a Maryland Lottery ticket at the local gas station, be careful. You're more likely to get killed by a car than win the jackpot.And watch out next week. It's more likely a bolt of lightning would come crashing down on your head than you'd win a million dollars.In short, the odds stink.That's the message mathematician Alan F. Karr passed on to prospective lottery players yesterday at the Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Laboratory in Howard County.

RICHMOND, Va. -- There is a dream common among regular lottery players: to wait until the jackpot reaches an astronomical sum and then to buy every possible number, guaranteeing a winner.In Virginia this month, one investment group came tantalizingly close to cornering the market on all possible combinations of six numbers from 1 to 44.State lottery officials say that the group bought 5 million of apossible 7 million tickets, at $1 each, in a lottery with a $27 million jackpot. Only an 11:15 p.m. purchase deadline -- five minutes before the state drawing on Feb. 15 -- prevented the group from buying the other 2 million possible number combinations.

The jackpot in tomorrow's drawing of the Maryland Lotto game has been increased to $2.5 million after Wednesday's drawing failed to produce a winner.The numbers drawn Wednesday night were 04, 07, 12, 24, 25, 37.A lottery spokeswoman said 38 people correctly matched five of the six numbers; they are to collect $675 each.Another 1,632 bettors matched four of the six numbers drawn ednesday night. Each of their tickets is worth $26.Lotto sales for the drawing totaled $642,036.