The Latest Big Iowa Lottery Winner!

When you work at the lottery, you just never know when the next big winner is going to come walking through the door. Well, it just happened today! We were at work this morning, taking care of the usual day-to-day details when our validations area called and said they’d like our help in congratulating a $250,000 winner!

What a great story he turned out to have! He’s Russ Twelmeyer, a retired computer guy from Des Moines. On Tuesday, he was headed to his favorite hang-out spot, a restaurant called Francie’s on Des Moines’ south side. On his way in, he stopped at the Quik Trip across the street and bought some scratch tickets. He won $55, so he went back across the street and bought some more tickets.

And on the last one, he thought he’d won $250. Then he looked again and thought it was $2,500! Then he decided to put his glasses on to be sure and that’s when he saw even more zeroes!

Twelmeyer is now making plans for his winnings. Some are long range – like padding his retirement account. Some are just for fun – like traveling to Hawaii where he grew up, and spoiling his grandkids.

And now that he’s a big winner, Twelmeyer definitely remembers those who played a part in his good fortune. He went back to the c-store right away and gave a $100 tip to the clerk who sold him the winning ticket! After all, he says if it weren’t for her, he might not have have won!