A southwest Iowa man said he and his wife danced in their kitchen at 4:30 a.m. after realizing he’d won a lottery prize of $25,000 a year for life.
Delbert Littleton of Atlantic said they both were shaking and hugging after realizing the big news. His ticket matched the first five numbers but missed the Lucky Ball in the Lucky for Life drawing on June 15 to win the game’s second prize of $25,000 a year for life.
Delbert, who’s 62 and works at an assisted-living facility, said he realized early the next morning that he’d won a big prize. And even though his wife Jodi was still asleep, he knew he had to share the news. So he carefully told her that she needed to get up and look at something. After they danced and hugged, he said she told him right away that they needed to put the ticket in their safety deposit box so nothing would happen to it.
They kept the ticket safe and Delbert was able to claim his prize today at Iowa Lottery headquarters in Clive.
He bought his winning ticket at Casey’s, 701 Poplar St. in Atlantic, and Casey’s will receive a $500 bonus from the lottery for selling the winning ticket at one of its stores.
Delbert is Iowa’s ninth big winner in Lucky for Life since the game debuted in January 2016 in our state. He said that he and his wife already know how they’ll use the winnings: They plan to buy a new house, both buy new cars, and put the rest away for retirement.
Because he works in environmental services, Delbert takes precautions against COVID-19 every day. He said that winning a big prize during the worldwide pandemic lightens the load a little bit and gives him more hope that we’ll all eventually get through this.
Delbert chose to receive his prize in its lump-sum option of $390,000. He said that no one can predict the future, so he and Jodi decided to take the lump sum and enjoy making plans with the winnings right away.
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