AT SECOND GLANCE, DE SOTO WOMAN DISCOVERS
$30,000 LOTTERY PRIZE

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Linda Pittman Wins Top Prize Playing the "Crossword" Scratch Game

DES MOINES, Iowa – After uncovering nine words on her "Crossword" scratch ticket, a De Soto woman looked a second time and realized she'd won the top prize!

Linda Pittman was scratching her ticket late at night when she realized she'd won the top prize of $30,000. She had just completed her shift at the Woodward Resource Center when she made the discovery.

"The first two letters I had one word, which is unusual. And then I kept scratching and kept getting more words and more words. So finally when I got done, I counted nine. So then I go back and I write them all down on a piece of paper, and I missed an "n" and that gave me the tenth word!" Pittman said.

Pittman, 63, immediately called her sons David and Doug to tell them the news.

"I don't think he really believed me at first, but he does now," she said.

Pittman claimed her prize Monday at the Iowa Lottery's headquarters in Des Moines. She added that after scratching the ticket, she couldn't get any sleep.

"Oh my gosh, that's $30,000!" she said.

Pittman said Crossword is her favorite game to play and that she plans to continue playing.

"That's my entertainment, Crosswords," she laughed.

Pittman plans to use some of her winnings to buy a new recliner as well as do some remodeling on her home. She bought her winning ticket at Casey's, 113 Spruce St. in De Soto.

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.

Six prizes of $30,000 are still up for grabs in Crossword as well as seven prizes of $3,000, 119 prizes of $300 as well as more than 540 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.