Southern Iowa Man Wins $30,000 Mega Millions Prize
Randy Adams Wins Big in Jan. 10 Drawing
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CLIVE, Iowa — A southern Iowa man bought a Mega Millions ticket on a whim and won a $30,000 prize.
Randy Adams, 59, of Chariton, matched four white balls and the Mega Ball® in the Jan. 10 drawing. He tripled his original $10,000 prize by opting for the $1 Megaplier® add-on at the time he purchased his ticket.
Adams' easy-pick ticket was one number away from winning that nights $1.1 billion jackpot. He purchased it at Casey's, 418 S. Seventh St. in Chariton.
"I had several scratch tickets in my console and on the refrigerator, so I cashed them in," he said Tuesday as he claimed his prize at lottery headquarters in Clive. "It was enough for nine plays, so I got the nine plays and the eighth one hit."
After the drawing, Adams said word spread quickly that a big winner was sold in town. A co-worker joked that Adams was the winner.
"He was kind of pestering me, saying, 'Somebody in town won. It was probably you!'" Adams said. "I just joked back, 'Yeah, it wasn't going to happen.'"
But on the drive home from work, Adams said his curiosity got the best of him. He pulled over, pulled up the winning numbers and saw he had matched five of six. When he scanned the ticket with the Iowa Lottery mobile app, the big win began to sink in.
The winning numbers in the Jan. 10 drawing were 7-13-14-15-18 and Mega Ball 9. The Megaplier was 3.
Adams said he and his wife, Sheila, plan to put the winnings toward home improvements and a vacation.
Players in $2 Mega Millions choose their first five numbers from a pool of 70, and another number - called the Mega Ball - from a separate pool of 25.
For more information about Mega Millions, visit ialottery.com.
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