CEDAR RAPIDS SECURITY OFFICER WINS $11,000 PRIZE

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Lyndsey Essary Wins Top Prize in Scratch Game

DES MOINES, Iowa - A Linn County woman won big money recently while shopping for dinner.

Lyndsey Essary, 21, of Cedar Rapids won $11,000 playing the “One-Eyed Jacks” instant-scratch game. She purchased the winning ticket at Hy-Vee, 20 Wilson Ave. S.W. in Cedar Rapids and claimed the prize at the Iowa Lottery's regional office in Cedar Rapids.

“My boyfriend sent me to Hy-Vee to buy some stuff for chili,” Essary recalled. “I said, ‘Well, what the heck? I have some cash on me so I'll just get one of these.’ I ended up scratching it out in the parking lot…. I just was in awe because I've never won that much money before.”

Essary was on the phone with her aunt when she scratched the winning ticket.

“I’m like, ‘…No way. This can't be happening.’ She's like, ‘What?’ And I said, ‘I think I just won $11,000,’” she said.

Now that she's won her first big prize, friends and family seem to think she's got the winning touch!

“I'm hoping that I can win again, but right now I'm kind of just in a state of shock,” Essary said. “Everyone keeps on telling me I need to go buy a Powerball ticket and see if I can win anything on that.”

Essary, who works as a security officer at Kirkwood Community College in Cedar Rapids, said she knows exactly how she's going to spend her winnings.

“I've had my car since October and I plan on paying that off…,” she said. “And then I have a student loan and I'm just going to pay that off. [I'll] put [the rest] in a savings account.”

One-Eyed Jacks is a $2 scratch game. If a player's card beats the “Dealer's Card,” he or she wins the prize shown for that game. If the player finds a “Jack” symbol, he or she wins three times the prize shown. Aces are high.

Essary claimed the ninth $11,000 top prize in the game. One top prize is still up for grabs in the game, along with approximately 150 prizes of $111. Overall odds in the game are about 1 in 4.

Since the Iowa Lottery's inception in 1985, more than $2.1 billion has been awarded in prizes and more than $1.1 billion has been raised for state programs.