Guthrie Center Man's Forgotten Ticket Yields $100,000 Win
Shannon Madison Claims Top Prize in 'Merry & Bright' Scratch Game
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CLIVE, Iowa — A Guthrie Center man who forgot about a lottery ticket he bought last month was surprised to discover it was worth $100,000.
Shannon Madison, 60, claimed his prize Thursday at the Iowa Lottery's main office in Clive. Madison bought his lucky "Merry & Bright" ticket at Casey's, 100 N. Fifth St. in Guthrie Center, then set it aside and forgot about it.
"Usually when I buy tickets, I take them home and lay them on my desk and kind of forget about them," Madison said. "Last Saturday, I finally got around to scratching them."
The first ticket yielded a $50 win. He thought he'd won $10 on the next ticket before realizing what he was seeing.
"I saw the one and zero and thought, 'Oh, I got my 10 bucks (back),'" he said. "Then I kept scratching and there were more zeros. I had to stop and look."
Madison quickly called for his wife, who was on the phone with a friend.
"I said, 'Tell her you'll call her right back,'" he recalled. "And I said, 'We just won $100,000!' We both started crying. It's something that we need and we didn't expect it, so it was quite the deal."
Madison and his wife run a small insulation business together, primarily working on weatherization projects and other jobs across Iowa. He said they plan to save much of the money, pay bills and potentially invest in equipment for their business.
Merry & Bright is a $10 scratch game with a holiday theme. It began sales in October and ended this month after the conclusion of the holiday season. For more information about Iowa Lottery scratch games, visit www.ialottery.com.
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