Scratch Ticket Randomly Selected By Store Clerk Wins $25,000 For Waterloo Woman
Ashly Bast Claims Top Prize In 'Bonus Ball Bingo' Scratch Game
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CLIVE, Iowa – A Waterloo woman asked a store clerk to choose a scratch ticket for her, and that ticket ended up winning $25,000.
Ashly Bast claimed the 12th of 29 top prizes of $25,000 available in the Iowa Lottery's "Bonus Ball Bingo" scratch game.
Bast, 33, said she stopped at Metro Mart, 3201 W. Fourth St. in Waterloo after work Tuesday to buy some lottery tickets, and she had the clerk pick them out for her.
"I said, 'I want a $5 Crossword.' And I said, 'I'll take a $2 (ticket) and a $3 (ticket).' And that's what she gave me," Bast told lottery employees Wednesday as she claimed her prize at the lottery's regional office in Mason City. "I told her it had to be a winner."
Bast started scratching off her Bonus Ball Bingo ticket and quickly discovered that she had completed a diagonal pattern on one of the Bingo cards on the ticket, which gave her a $25 prize. She said she still had several more numbers to scratch off so she was hoping that she could complete the 'X' pattern on the same Bingo card to win the game's $25,000 top prize.
"And I was like, 'Oh sweet, I got it. I just won $50.' Because I got two diagonals, not thinking in my head that it was the 'X' (pattern)," Bast said. "And then it dawned on me that the two diagonals was an X and I'm like, 'Oh my gosh, I think I just won $25,000!'"
She quickly double-checked her work and took her ticket to a local convenience store to confirm that she'd won $25,000.
Bast, who works at a tractor manufacturing plant in Waterloo, said she plans to use her winnings to buy a new couch, buy some apparel of her favorite sports team, and pay bills.
Bonus Ball Bingo is a $2 scratch game. More details about how to play this game, and number of prizes still up for grabs in it can be found on the Iowa Lottery's website, www.ialottery.com.
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