Here's a feel-good story to send us into the long holiday weekend: An Ames man who was just minutes away from claiming a $1,000 prize when his ticket fell out of his pocket has now been able to claim his winnings.
There definitely was some luck involved, but a lot of behind-the-scenes legwork as well.
The story started Wednesday afternoon when Nate VanderLinden of Ames came to lottery headquarters here in Des Moines to claim a prize. But he said he quickly realized something awful: His winning ticket was missing.
Nate said that when he got out of his car in our parking lot, he had a $1,000-winning "Mike's Picks" scratch ticket in his back pocket. By the time he walked inside our building, the ticket was gone, he said.
One of our Security Division folks began reviewing surveillance-camera footage of our parking lot while others went outside with Nate to look for his ticket. Their searches found no sign of it.
Nate left his contact information with us and headed home, obviously disappointed.
One of our Security folks then sent an email to all employees here at lottery HQ, asking us to look under our cars and around our vehicles as we were leaving work for the night. And lo and behold, one of our staffers found a Mike's Picks ticket by a dumpster as she was leaving the parking lot. It was a $1,000-winning ticket.
We confirmed that the rest of the details of Nate's story checked out and he was able to come back to lottery headquarters yesterday to claim his prize! He was an obviously relieved and happy guy.
Congratulations, Nate! We're glad there was a happy ending to this story!
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