JUST PURE LUCK FOR ONE MASON CITY MAN

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 Tim Starkey click here.

Tim Starkey Wins the Top Prize of $30,000 Playing the "Jingle Bell Crossword" Scratch Game

DES MOINES, Iowa – A Mason City man made his friend jealous when he won the top prize of $30,000 playing the lottery's "Jingle Bell Crossword" instant-scratch game.

Tim Starkey, 34, scratched the ticket at a friend's house. He said his friend was shocked when he discovered his win.

"He wasn't too happy with me because he was just up at that Kum & Go and he had a $3 winner he just bought from there. The ticket right before it!" Starkey said.

Since his win, Starkey said he's called everyone he knows.

"Everybody thought I was lying. They told me to bring them my ticket, but I said, 'No, it's in the lockbox and it's not coming out of the lockbox!'" he said.

Starkey claimed his prize Monday at the Iowa Lottery's regional office in Mason City. He bought his winning ticket at Kum & Go, 637 12th St. N.E. in Mason City.

Starkey said he plans to use his winnings to pay debts.

Jingle Bell 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.

Eleven prizes of $30,000 are still up for grabs in Jingle Bell Crossword as well as 19 prizes of $3,000, more than 220 prizes of $300 as well as more than 1,030 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 nearly $1.2 billion for state programs.