Newton Couple Team Up for $50,000 Lottery Win
Michael Stockwell Claims Top Prize In '$50,000 Super Crossword' Game
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CLIVE, Iowa — For a Newton couple, scratching lottery tickets has always been a team effort, and this time it paid off with a $50,000 prize.
"I usually buy the tickets and take them home, and my wife scratches them," Michael Stockwell said on Tuesday as he claimed his prize at the lottery's main office in Clive. "That's kind of the way we've always done it."
Stockwell and his wife Pamela won a top prize in the Iowa Lottery's "$50,000 Super Crossword" scratch game. He bought the winning ticket at Casey's, 4343 S. 15th Ave. E. in Newton, and brought it home for his wife to scratch.
In the game, players try to complete words with a given set of letters. The more words completed, the larger the prize. Pamela thought she'd completed nine words for a $5,000 prize.
"She said, 'I think I've got $5,000! Look at it and then go check it right away,'" Michael Stockwell recalled.
He returned to the store and asked an employee to check the ticket on the lottery terminal, and it wasn't until he saw the customer receipt that he realized their prize was much larger.
"She came back and gave me the little slip and it said $50,000," he said. "I thought, 'I don't believe it! I just don't.'"
Stockwell said he and his wife, who are both retired, plan to invest their winnings for the future and maybe take a fall trip to Michigan.
The $50,000 Super Crossword is a $5 scratch game that features 105 top prizes of $50,000 and overall odds of 1 in 3.26. For more information about this game, and the number of prizes still available, visit www.ialottery.com.
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