NW Iowa Woman'S Winning Scratch Ticket Worth More Than She Thought
Kelly Ragaller Claims $30,000 Top Prize In 'Bonus Crossword' Scratch Game
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CLIVE, Iowa – It took a northwest Iowa woman about an hour to figure out her winning scratch ticket had won much more than $300.
Kelly Ragaller of Sergeant Bluff claimed the 51st of 91 top prizes of $30,000 available in the Iowa Lottery's "Bonus Crossword" scratch game.
Ragaller, 46, said she bought her winning ticket Jan. 6 at Casey's, 111 Gaul Drive in Sergeant Bluff on the way to her daughter's archery tournament. She scratched off the ticket in the car.
"Actually, at first I thought I won $300 and then I thought it was $3,000," Ragaller told lottery employees Jan. 12 as she claimed her prize at the lottery's headquarters in Clive.
After telling her husband, Terry, that she'd possibly won $3,000, they stopped at a convenience store along the way to check the ticket. The convenience store clerk misread the winning report on the lottery machine and incorrectly confirmed that Ragaller had won $3,000.
"About an hour later I was going to take a picture to send it to my sister and I realized that it was actually $30,000; I hadn't counted the words right," she said.
Ragaller, a nurse practitioner for Family Health Care of Siouxland, said she plans to save a majority of her winnings.
Bonus Crossword is a $3 scratch game. More details about how to play this game, and number of prizes still up for grabs in it can be found on the Iowa Lottery's website, www.ialottery.com.
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