NORWALK WOMAN WINS $10,000

To download digital audio files of this story, right click here, then navigate to "Save Target As" to save this file to your computer.

For media-ready jpeg image of Shelley Sheriff click here.

Shelley Sheriff Wins in March 22 Powerball Drawing

DES MOINES, Iowa - A Warren County woman has claimed a large lottery prize.

Shelley Sheriff, 44, of Norwalk won $10,000 in the March 22 Powerball® drawing. She purchased the winning ticket at Git-N-Go, 802 Beardsley St. in Norwalk and claimed the prize at Iowa Lottery headquarters in Des Moines.

Sheriff said she checks her tickets once a week and picks her own numbers. She had no idea she'd been holding on to a big winner for a week when she had her tickets checked on Saturday night.

“[The clerk said], ‘Uh oh.’ I said, ‘What's the matter?’ and she [said], ‘It says you have to go to headquarters,’” Sheriff recalled. “I [said], ‘Well how much did I win?’ She [said], ‘I don't know, it doesn't say.’ So she ran it through again and that's when it came up $10,007.”

Sheriff works nights and had to go to work right after she found out she was a big winner. She said it was easy to keep herself occupied at work but when she got home she couldn't think of anything else!

“I had other things to keep my mind off [winning] but when I got home yesterday I couldn't sleep,” she said.

The winning Powerball numbers for the March 22 drawing were: 7-25-28-46-48. The Powerball was 19. The Power Play® multiplier was 3.

If Sheriff had played the Power Play option, she would have won $30,000!

“I’m kicking myself for not [playing Power Play]!” she said.

Players can increase their prizes with the Power Play (except the jackpot) up to five times. The cost is $1 per play.

Just before the Powerball numbers are drawn, the Power Play wheel is spun. Slots on the wheel list the numbers 2 through 5, indicating the amount prizes (except the jackpot) will be multiplied if that number is drawn.

Winning numbers may be checked by calling the lottery at (515) 725-7900 from 8 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. Winning numbers may also be checked through the winning numbers' hot line at (515) 323-4633, at the lottery Web site at www.ialottery.com or with lottery retail outlets.

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.