A southern Iowa man says he’d overslept a bit and was rushing to catch up when he learned he’d won a lottery prize of $25,000 a year for life.
Brent Oden of Cincinnati, a community of about 290 in Appanoose County, says he normally would have checked the results of his Lucky for Life® ticket on the Iowa Lottery’s mobile app. But in his rush, he gave it to a clerk at a local store to scan on the lottery terminal.
He says the woman ran the ticket through the machine, and then delivered this news: “I think you just hit something big.” Oden’s reaction? “Surely not.”
But it was true!
Brent, 56, who farms and owns a sanitation business, is Iowa’s 19th big winner in Lucky for Life since the game’s 2016 debut in our state.
His ticket matched the first five numbers but missed the Lucky Ball in Tuesday’s drawing to win the game’s second prize of $25,000 a year for life. The winning numbers in Tuesday’s drawing were 1-15-20-31-44 and Lucky Ball 18.
Oden bought his winning easy-pick ticket at Bratz Oil Corp., 102 Drake Ave. in Centerville, the same store where he had his ticket checked. He says his stars must have fallen in a row or something.
Then word in his small town spread quickly. Oden said his children, grandchildren, friends and people in the community all were calling to see if it was true.
Bratz Oil will receive a $500 bonus from the lottery for selling the winning ticket.
Brent chose to receive his prize in its lump-sum option of $390,000. He and his wife, Julie, say they’ll invest most of the winnings, but may spend some of it on a trip to Hawaii to fulfill Brent’s pledge that they’d go back after their honeymoon there.
Brent’s prize was the fourth major win by a lottery player in Iowa in five days. The winning streak started with a $1 million Mega Millions® prize won Friday in Davenport. Then on Saturday, an InstaPlay jackpot of nearly $400,000 was won in Cascade and a Powerball® prize of $2 million was won in Ottumwa.
An Ottumwa woman claimed the $2 million Powerball prize on Monday, while Oden claimed his prize yesterday. The other two major prizes remain unclaimed.
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