Waterloo Man Scratches Off $50,000 Prize On Lunch Break
Charles Jones Claims Top Prize in 'Fab 5s' Scratch Game
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CLIVE, Iowa - A Waterloo man cut his workday short to claim a $50,000 lottery prize he'd won during his lunch break.
"I left work immediately," Charles Jones said with a laugh on Friday as he claimed his prize at the lottery's Cedar Rapids regional office. "I'm overwhelmed. It still feels surreal."
Jones, 44, said he bought a few scratch tickets at Hy-Vee Gas, 2221 Logan Ave. in Waterloo. He was eyeing a different game, but decided at the last minute to purchase a ticket in the "Fab 5s" game, also.
"I started off buying three $2 scratch tickets, and I was like, 'Wait a minute, let me get one of these $5 tickets, too,'" he recalled.
Jones quickly uncovered a winning symbol on the $5 ticket, but waited to scratch off the prize amount until he played the rest of the card.
"Then I went back to see what the prize was, and I was just – I couldn't believe that I hit the max," he said.
Jones won the game's sixth top prize. He said he planned to use his winnings to pay bills and retire debt.
Fab 5s is a $5 scratch game that features eight top prizes of $50,000 and overall odds of 1 in 3.49. For more information about this game and the number of prizes still available, visit ialottery.com.
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