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Southwest Iowa Woman 'Mind-Blown' after $300,000 Lottery Win

Patricia Weihs Claims Top Prize in 'Ruby Red Crossword' Scratch Game

Patricia Weihs

CLIVE, Iowa — A southwest Iowa woman who won a $300,000 prize playing the lottery said she knew she had a winning ticket, but she was way off on the prize amount.

"It was a shock to get it in the first place because I thought it was only $300," Patricia "Patty" Weihs said with a laugh on Tuesday as she claimed her prize at lottery headquarters in Clive. "I still can't wrap my head around it."

Weihs, 66, of Walnut, won the seventh top prize in the Iowa Lottery's "Ruby Red Crossword" scratch game. She bought her winning ticket at Yesway, 2101 Antique City Drive in Walnut.

She took her ticket back to the store the next morning and handed it to an employee to claim what she thought was a $300 prize.

"He said, 'I can't pay you,'" Weihs recalled. "I said, 'Why not? It's $300.' He said, 'No. It's $300,000!' I said, 'What? No way!' I just started screaming."

The store employee gave the ticket back to her with a receipt showing the prize she had won

"He showed me this slip, and I saw this 3 with all these zeros after it," she said. "I didn't know what to say. I mean, what could you say? It's like you're mind-blown."

Weihs, a server at a local restaurant, said she plans to save her winnings for now, but is eying a new vehicle purchase next spring.

Ruby Red Crossword is a $30 scratch game that features 16 top prizes of $300,000, 47 prizes of $10,000 and overall odds of 1 in 2.29. For more information about this game, and the number of prizes still available, visit www.ialottery.com.

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