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No matter how many times this Iowa man checked his Lucky for Life ticket, he probably wasn't going to believe what the computer told him until he had the check in hand!
The winning ticket
Paul Freeman of Des Moines told lottery officials that he repeatedly checked his winning lottery ticket just to make sure it still showed him that he won $25,000 a year for life!
"I've been checking the ticket at numerous locations to make sure that it was real," Freeman told lottery officials when he claimed his at Iowa Lottery headquarters in Clive. "It continues to say the same amount each and every time. And on my phone app, it said the same thing last night."
Freeman bought his winning easy-pick ticket from Price Chopper, located at 1819 Beaver Avenue in Des Moines. For selling the winning ticket, Price Chopper will get a $500 bonus from the state lottery.
The winning numbers for the August 19 drawing were 15, 17, 35, 40, and 45, with a Lucky Ball number of 6. Freeman matched the first five winning numbers but missed the Lucky Ball. That means he won $25,000 a year for life in Monday's Lucky for Life drawing.
The non-stop scanning
Freeman is a wine consultant for the Urbandale location of an international wine and spirits company. He noticed he first won the big prize after scanning his ticket at the same store where he'd bought it.
The scanner had to be wrong, though, as he checked it three times on the store's lottery self-checker.
It wasn't wrong, so when he got home, he called his wife, who is currently out of state, to share the big news.
Much like him, she didn't believe her husband and “didn't think it was funny.” Now that he has the check in hand, he said, “But I think she's going to be finally convinced now.”
Dreams finally happened
When claiming his winnings, Freeman told lottery officials, "Everybody always dreams about winning this, thinks about winning it, and now it finally happened.”
With his win, Freeman had two options: take the $25,000 a year for life or take it as a one-time, lump-sum payment of $390,000. He chose the lump-sum option and said he already has plans for the money: becoming debt-free!
He said:
My wife had some surgeries, she had some medical issues, and she's on disability right now. This is really going to go to paying off all of our debt and investing the rest of the money to getting back to where we need to be, so hopefully, in seven years, we can retire comfortably and retire happy.
Freeman said it's always something that he has thought about, what he would do if he actually won the lotto. Now that he has, he said, “It's just putting the pegs in place and making it happen.”
Freeman said he didn't share the big news with anyone but his wife, but now that the news is out, he'll probably be getting a lot of phone calls and texts from people!
Lucky for Life debuted in January 2016 in Iowa. With Freeman's win, he became the state's 20th big winner.
Enjoy playing the Iowa Lottery, and please remember to play responsibly.
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