PERRY MAN PICKS UP HIS CHILDREN
AND A WINNING SCRATCH TICKET

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 Aaron & Janae Boyer click here.

Aaron Boyer Wins Top Prize of $30,000 Playing "Crossword" (orange newsprint) Scratch Game

DES MOINES, Iowa – A Perry man won the top prize of $30,000 playing the "Crossword" (orange newsprint) scratch game.

Aaron Boyer bought a couple of scratch tickets while waiting to pick up his children from school.

"I was waiting for them and just picked up a couple of tickets just to kill some time," Boyer calmly explained to Lottery staff. "After I realized I had a lot of words out there, I kind of stashed the ticket and looked at it after I got the kids home."

Although Boyer remained calm about his big win, his wife Janae was ready to burst with excitement after the ticket had been validated. But at first she thought he had only revealed eight words.

"She counted the words and said, 'You've only got eight words. That's only $300,'" said Boyer. "I said, 'Count again.' And she says, 'Alright, you got nine words.' And I said, 'Count again.' And we finally had to write all the words out and make sure that we had checked all the letters."

They were able to finally confirm that Boyer did in fact have all 10 words to win the top prize of $30,000. Boyer then shared the exciting news with his two young boys, ages 7 and 9.

"I don't think they understand the concept of money quite yet," said Boyer.

He said he'll probably get asked to buy a few new toys with his winnings.

Boyer, 38, said the win still hadn't really sunk in yet. Their only plan for the winnings was to tuck it away in the bank for right now, giving them the chance to think about it.

Boyer bought his winning ticket at Casey's, 1302 First Ave. in Perry. He claimed his prize Tuesday at the Iowa Lottery headquarters in Des Moines.

Boyer, a self-employed carpenter, said he does consider himself a lucky man.

"Because I got a great family," stated Boyer.

Crossword (orange newsprint) 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.

Sixty-four prizes of $30,000 are still up for grabs in Crossword (orange newsprint) as well as 89 prizes of $3,000, more than 1,295 prizes of $300 as well as more than 6,240 prizes of $100.

Since the Iowa Lottery's start in 1985, its players have won more than $2.2 billion in prizes while the lottery has raised more than $1.1 billion for state programs.