Southwest Iowa Man Wins $100,000 Lottery Prize
Jacob Harper Claims Top Prize In '$100,000 Mega Crossword' Game
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CLIVE, Iowa — A southwest Iowa man left a late-night message on his parents' answering machine telling them he'd won a $100,000 lottery prize.
"It's something along the lines of, 'Hey, call me when you wake up, I've got some major news. It's nothing bad,'" Jacob Harper recalled with a laugh on Monday as he claimed his "$100,000 Mega Crossword" top prize at lottery headquarters in Clive. "My mom's a worrier, so it's just like, 'Don't worry, everything's good. But give me a call!'"
Harper, 33, of Glenwood, won the 16th top prize in the game. He bought his winning ticket at Casey's, 601 S. Locust St. in Glenwood and scratched it at home late at night after a get-together with friends.
He said it felt like time stopped as soon as he realized he'd completed six words on his ticket to win one of the game's top prizes.
"I counted again and again and I think I got up to like 10 times of going through and seeing six before it finally sunk in that I just won $100,000," he said.
When his parents called him back the following morning, he told them the news.
"My mom just started screaming," he said. "My dad's laughing in the background, I can hear him on the phone. They were ecstatic. They still are. I'm pretty sure they were jumping around more than I was. It was pretty great."
Harper said his big win comes at a great time. He plans to quit his current job to go full time at the computer business that he and his friends started.
"I'm ecstatic," he said. "It's life-changing."
The $100,000 Mega Crossword is a $10 scratch game that features overall odds of 1 in 3.30 and 38 top prizes of $100,000. For more information about this game, and the number of prizes still available, visit www.ialottery.com.
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