"LUCKY DIAMONDS" BECOME CLIVE WOMAN'S BEST FRIEND

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Sheryl Crossett Claims Top Prize Playing "Lucky Diamonds" Instant-Scratch Game

DES MOINES, Iowa – After doing some research on Iowa Lottery scratch games, a Clive woman decided to buy a "Lucky Diamonds" scratch ticket and ended up winning the game's top prize of $250,000!

Sheryl Crossett said she visited the Iowa Lottery's Web site and looked at the scratch tickets with the largest top prizes and the most top prizes left to win. She decided on Lucky Diamonds, and picked a ticket up the next time she was at a lottery retailer.

"I went back to my vehicle and I scratched the ticket, and I couldn't believe it!" said Crossett. "So I went back inside and I asked if anybody had better eyes than me because I wanted to be sure it was real!"

When another person assured her it was real, the cashier offered to run the ticket through the lottery terminal to validate it.

"He did that and his eyes got really big but he said, 'I need to shake your hand and congratulate you! It's for $250,000!'" Crossett said.

The cashier who sold Crossett the ticket also was at the store when the ticket was validated, so Crossett said they also got to shake hands.

Crossett had to go to work after discovering her win, but called her husband, Tim, her mother and two of her children to tell them the news while on the way.

"They're still in disbelief. I had to send them pictures of the tickets," she said.

In the past, Crossett has won a prize of $5,000 playing lottery games. She said she plans to continue playing and has several plans for her winnings.

"I would like to take a vacation. I would like to get out of the Iowa snow and go somewhere really, really warm!" she laughed. "I have some bills I would like to take care of. I would also like to purchase myself a new truck and then I plan to invest the rest."

Crossett advises other players to never give up, because you never know.

"It's the happiest day of my life, I know that!" she said.

Crossett claimed her prize Thursday at the Iowa Lottery's headquarters in Des Moines. She purchased her winning ticket at Petropointe, 11408 Forest Ave. in Clive.

Lucky Diamonds is a $10 scratch game. Players try to match any of "your numbers" to the "winning numbers" in the play area on each ticket. Players who find the "double diamond" symbol win double the prize shown. The overall odds of winning a prize in the game are 1 in 3.18.

Eleven top prizes of $250,000 are still up for grabs in Lucky Diamonds, as well as 58 prizes of $5,000 and more than 845 prizes of $500.

Since the Iowa Lottery's start in 1985, its players have won more than $2.4 billion in prizes while the lottery has raised nearly $1.2 billion for state programs.