"CROSSWORD" LOVER WINS $30,000 PRIZE

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Karen Vander Veen Wins Top Prize of $30,000 Playing the "Jingle Bell Crossword" Scratch Game

DES MOINES, Iowa – A Spencer woman picked up one of her favorite scratch tickets on her way home from running errands and ended up winning a $30,000 prize!

Karen Vander Veen, 67, said she was in such disbelief that she had won the top prize in the "Jingle Bell Crossword" game, she drove all the way back to the retailer to have the ticket validated.

"I thought, 'I can't believe this. I've got to go back to town to have it checked,'" Vander Veen said.

Vander Veen said she knows the clerks where she purchased the ticket, so she tried not to spill the beans before the ticket had been validated.

"I didn't say a whole lot; I just said, 'Will you check this for me?' And she just kind of stood there and she goes, 'Do you know how much this is worth?' And I said, 'I hope so!' They were really excited for me because they know us," Vander Veen said.

Vander Veen purchased her winning ticket at Car-Go Express, 1804 Highway Blvd. in Spencer.

After confirming the win, Vander Veen went home to tell her husband Harvey.

"He said, 'Well, you finally did it!'" she said. Vander Veen said she really enjoys playing all of the lottery's Crossword tickets, and has played them off-and-on for about five years.

After telling her husband, Vander Veen called her son, her daughter-in-law and her aunt.

"My son called me back and said, 'How much did you say you won? Three thousand?' And I said, 'No, $30,000!' and he said, 'This is a joke, right?'" she said with a laugh.

Vander Veen plans to use some of her winnings to pay bills as well as splurge on Christmas gifts.

Vander Veen claimed her prize Friday at the Iowa Lottery's regional office in Storm Lake.

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.

Seven prizes of $30,000 are still up for grabs in Jingle Bell Crossword as well as 13 prizes of $3,000, more than 125 prizes of $300 as well as more than 590 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.