Grandma scans Iowa lottery ticket 4 times before she believes huge prize. ‘In shock’
When Yolanda Bennett got home for work recently, she had big plans: scratch some Iowa Lottery tickets.
The 55-year-old’s boyfriend had bought her several $100,000 Mega Crossword tickets the day before, but she didn’t have time to scratch them until the next day, according to a May 30 Iowa Lottery news release.
At first, Bennett thought one of her tickets had won a $100 prize, she told officials. However, when she scanned her ticket using her lottery app, she saw a much bigger prize.
“I was in shock,” Bennett told officials. “I was just like, ‘There’s no way!’ So I cleared it and I scanned it like three more times.”
Bennett’s prize was actually $10,000, according to officials. Once she got over her initial shock, Bennett called her boyfriend and sent him screenshots of her prize.
“He’s like, ‘Don’t you dare lie to me!’” Bennett told officials. “I told him, ‘I’m not lying!’”
Her excitement didn’t fade anytime soon.
“I had a hard time sleeping that night,” Bennett said. “It was like I couldn’t believe it. I kept looking at the ticket, going, ‘I can’t believe I won $10,000!’”
Now, Bennett has big plans for her prize.
“I have a house that I’m in the process of fixing up to sell, so I’ll probably put some of it toward that,” she told officials. “And then for the rest of it, my grandkids are coming up for two weeks at the end of June for vacation, so I’m pretty sure we’re going to have a good one.”
Bennett’s boyfriend bought her tickets at Kwik Star in Maquoketa, about 60 miles east of Cedar Rapids.
This story was originally published June 1, 2023 at 5:57 PM with the headline "Grandma scans Iowa lottery ticket 4 times before she believes huge prize. ‘In shock’."
