Wife thought husband won $1,000 in lottery — it was much more. ‘Look at all the zeros!’

An Iowa lottery player used money from a $500 win to score a jackpot prize in a scratch-off game, officials say.

Ronald Conrad, of Grimes, said he purchased a Lucky Numbers Game Book scratch-off ticket at a Hy-Vee grocery store with his previous winnings.

After scratching off his ticket, he immediately knew it was a big winner. But he needed a second set of eyes to make sure.

“I handed it to the clerk and said, ‘You don’t have enough to pay me here, but check this out. Verify it for me!’” Conrad told lottery officials.

What Conrad believed was true. He had won one of the game’s jackpot prizes of $100,000.

The $100,000 prize is the 13th of 15 top prizes offered in the game.

Conrad’s wife, he told lottery officials, needed some extra convincing.

“I showed her the receipt that the cashier had printed out for me,” he said. “She first looked at it and thought it was $1,000. I said, ‘No, you better look at all the zeros!’ And then she almost fainted.”

He said he plans to use the winnings for home improvements and new tires, putting the rest into savings.

A retiree along with his wife, Conrad said the win “couldn’t have come at a better time.”

“This is a game-changer,” he said.

Grimes is about a 15-mile drive northwest from Des Moines.

This story was originally published December 11, 2024 at 12:13 PM with the headline "Wife thought husband won $1,000 in lottery — it was much more. ‘Look at all the zeros!’."