Norwalk Woman Wins $30,000 Lottery Prize
Deborah Thorson Wins Top Prize in 'Bonus Crossword' Game
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CLIVE, Iowa — A Norwalk woman who won a $30,000 lottery prize said she didn't realize right away that she'd won big.
"I've probably had the ticket two months," said Deborah Thorson, a school bus driver, on Friday as she claimed her "Bonus Crossword" top prize at lottery headquarters in Clive. "We didn't have school today. I was doing extra chores. I thought I'd just gather all the scratch-offs that I bought through the season and take them to Fareway to check myself."
Thorson said she would occasionally purchase a lottery ticket and throw it in her travel bag. But she admitted that she didn't check her tickets for some time – and got a huge surprise when she did.
She said that when she first scanned her $30,000-winning ticket, ticket, she thought it was a $30 winner. She did a double-take when she saw all the zeros that followed.
Thorson, who bought her winning ticket at Fareway, 1711 Sunset Drive in Norwalk, said she immediately drove to pick up her husband.
"I showed up at the shop to pick my husband up, told him he had the rest of the day off and he had to drive me down here," she said with a laugh.
She said she and her husband plan to put the winnings toward a retirement home they plan to build.
"It's going to be a great Christmas," she said. "Don't ever think it can't happen to you because it can."
Bonus Crossword is a $3 scratch game that features overall odds of 1 in 3.52 and 144 top prizes of $30,000. For more information about this game, and the number of prizes still available, visit www.ialottery.com.
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