$30,000 PRIZE GIVES DES MOINES COUPLE REASON TO DANCE

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Donna McGregor Wins Top Prize Playing the "Crossword" Scratch Game

DES MOINES, Iowa – A Des Moines woman said she and her husband celebrated their $30,000 win playing the "Crossword" scratch game by dancing around.

Donna McGregor, 66, said she and her husband Clyde initially thought they had uncovered nine words on the puzzle for a $3,000 prize.

"I was just getting every letter on there. He went downstairs to take a shower and I was still counting. And I had ten of them! And I ran downstairs and said, 'Oh, Clyde, we have ten!'" McGregor said.

McGregor and Clyde said both of them thought it was a mistake at first.

"I just thought I was crazy. I just couldn't believe it," McGregor said.

Clyde said they were both so excited about the win they danced around right there in the bathroom.

"I hadn't got in the shower yet," said Clyde. "She's comes down here running, telling me, 'We got ten!'"

McGregor said she has told two of her children about the win, but neither of them believed her at first.

"They just think I'm joking, you know," she said.

McGregor said she enjoys playing Crossword because it's entertaining. Prior to this win, McGregor said she's won $600 playing Powerball® when it first began sales in Iowa.

McGregor, who is retired, plans to use some of her winnings to pay bills.

McGregor claimed her prize Friday at the Iowa Lottery's headquarters in Des Moines. She purchased her winning ticket at Quik Trip, 2300 Martin Luther King Jr. Pkwy in Des Moines.

Crossword is a $3 scratch game. Players win a prize by uncovering at least three complete words in the ticket's puzzle. If a player uncovers 10 words, he/she wins $30,000. The overall odds of winning in the game are about 1 in 4.

Eighty-one prizes of $30,000 are still up for grabs in Crossword as well as 122 prizes of $3,000, more than 1,720 prizes of $300 and more than 8,320 prizes of $100.

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