Story City Man Scratches Off $50,000 Lottery Prize
Ryan Peterson Claims Top Prize in 'Fab 5s' Scratch Game
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CLIVE, Iowa - A Story City man who won a $50,000 lottery prize said his teenage children had ideas about how he should spend his winnings - but they were overruled.
"I've got a 13 (year-old) and a 15 (year-old), so both of them were like, 'Well, we're getting cars for Christmas, aren't we?'" Ryan Peterson recalled with a laugh on Monday as he claimed his prize at lottery headquarters in Clive. "I'm like, 'I don't think that's going to happen!' They tried."
Peterson, 40, of Story City, won the seventh top prize in the Iowa Lottery's "Fab 5s" scratch game. He stopped after work at Kum & Go, 1554 Broad St. in Story City, to fill up his gas tank and decided to pick up two scratch tickets in the game: one for him and one for his wife, Amber.
She won $5 on her ticket. His was much more.
"It went from 5 to 0 and then the zeroes kept going," Peterson said. "I kind of just didn't know what to think at that point. I went upstairs to show her and I was like, 'I've got to sit down for a second.'"
He said his wife was just as surprised was he was. They confirmed the win by scanning the ticket with the Iowa Lottery mobile app.
Peterson, who works for Story County's roads department, said he and his wife have no immediate plans to spend the winnings.
"As of right now, we're probably just going to stick it in savings and try not to just do any splurge buys," he said. "Kind of be smart about it is the biggest thing."
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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