DAVENPORT MAN'S LUCKY QUARTER REVEALS
$250,000 "LUCKY DIAMONDS" PRIZE

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Michael Overstreet Claims Top Prize Playing "Lucky Diamonds" Scratch Game

DES MOINES, Iowa – "Find a quarter, pick it up, and all day you'll have good luck" is the philosophy a Davenport man has decided to live by.

Michael Overstreet found a quarter while doing his laundry, reminding him of the "Lucky Diamonds" instant-scratch ticket he had left in his car. He used the quarter to scratch the ticket, which revealed a $250,000 prize!

"It's unbelievable, isn't it? I mean, I just can't believe it – I'm so nervous!" Overstreet said.

Overstreet, 66, picked up the ticket when he stopped by a local convenience store, but forgot all about it when he got home. After doing a few things around the house, he decided to do his laundry.

"I saw a quarter lying on the floor. I picked it up, and I thought, 'Well maybe you find a quarter, pick it up, and all day you have good luck,' so I went out and got my card, got in the house and scratched it off and there it was – a $250,000 winner!" Overstreet said.

Overstreet said he couldn't believe it was a winner at first, but checked the ticket a second time and figured he must have been right. To be sure it was a winner, he took it back to the convenience store where he bought it.

Overstreet bought his winning ticket at Casey's, 1691 W. 53rd St. in Davenport. After having the ticket validated, he went straight to the Iowa Lottery's regional office in Cedar Rapids on Monday to claim his prize.

Overstreet plans to pay bills and buy a car with his winnings.

"I just can't believe it! It's a lot of money!" he said.

Overstreet, a retired antique collector, had only told his girlfriend of his win. He planned to make more calls on his way home from claiming the prize.

He said he plans to keep his lucky quarter and keep playing.

Lucky Diamonds is a $10 scratch game. Players try to match any of "your numbers" to the "winning numbers" in the play area on each ticket. Players who find the "double diamond" symbol win double the prize shown. The overall odds of winning a prize in the game are 1 in 3.18.

Overstreet claimed the third of 17 top prizes of $250,000 that are available in the game. Sixty-eight prizes of $5,000 remain unclaimed in Lucky Diamonds along with more than 1,000 prizes of $500.

Since the Iowa Lottery's start in 1985, its players have won more than $2.4 billion in prizes while the lottery has raised more than $1.2 billion for state programs.