Iowa Mom’s Lottery Win Goes from $5,000 to $50,000

Winning after playing the lottery is always fun. But the higher the prize, the bigger the excitement and sometimes an extra zero to the won sum can drastically change things for the lucky winner. This is the case of a Council Bluffs woman who thought she won only $5,000 from a scratch-off ticket but was pleasantly surprised to see that her prize was actually a whopping $50,000. The lucky lottery player, Zondra Pruitt, claimed her prize from the Iowa Lottery headquarters in Clive earlier this week. The prize came from the $5 scratch-off game, $50,000 Super Crossword.

In the lottery game, the players try to complete words in a puzzle with preset letters. The $50,000 won by Pruitt represents the 36th grand prize from the popular lottery game. Overall, the $50,000 Super Crossword game offers 105 grand prizes of $50,000 each. The odds of the game are 1 in 3.26.

The 57-year-old lucky woman bought her lottery ticket from Hy-Vee located on 1745 Madison Ave. in Council Bluffs, Iowa. While Pruitt took home one of the remaining top prizes from the $50,000 Super Crossword game, there are more than 60 such prizes that are left in play.

The Winner Plans to Invest the Prize She Won

Recalling the moment of the lucky win, the Council Bluffs woman revealed that as she was scratching off the tickets, she was surprised to see a $5,000 prize after thinking she completed nine of the words in the crossword puzzle. However, this is when her son told her that she actually completed 10 words, granting her the $50,000 grand prize of the lottery game. “My mind just went blank. I think the most I’ve won on a scratch-off is $100. I just do them for fun, and it’s like, ‘Wow!’ I didn’t know what to think or what to say. I double-checked it like three, four times,” said Pruitt.

The 57-year-old revealed that she didn’t wake up her husband to tell him the big news as he was already sleeping. However, early in the morning on the next day, when Pruitt’s husband got up, she couldn’t resist and told him about the big lottery win.

When asked about her plans for the hefty sum, the woman said that she anticipates discussing different options with financial experts. “We’re going to talk to our CPA and my investment specialist,” said Pruitt, adding that she wants to invest the money rather than blowing it away.