MASON CITY – The first of eight top prizes of $100,000 available in the lottery’s new “The BIG Ticket” scratch game was claimed Monday by a north Iowa woman.
Deanne Jakoubek of Floyd works at a bank in Mason City and said she has seen many lottery winners come in over the years with their prize checks and she hoped that one day it would be her.
“I always thought, ‘Oh, I just want to go to a lottery office one time,’” she said.
Jakoubek got her wish Monday. The 43-year-old said she bought one ticket in “The BIG Ticket” scratch game at a local convenience store before work and won $25. So at lunchtime she used those winnings to buy another ticket at Casey’s, 2701 19th St. SW in Mason City and ended up winning the game’s $100,000 top prize.
“I didn’t think that I read it right so I kept scratching it,” Jakoubek told lottery employees the same day as claimed her prize at the lottery’s regional office in Mason City. “Then I kept coming back to it. So I just kept going back and looking and looking thinking, ‘I’m not reading this right.’”
Jakoubek had her ticket verified at a local convenience store and then immediately called her husband, Chad, but he was at work and didn’t answer right away. Jakoubek said her husband called her back and initially thought something bad had happened.
“He called and I said, ‘Are you sitting down?’ And he goes, ‘What did you do?’ And I said, ‘Well, I just won $100,000 on a scratch ticket!’” she said.
Her husband was still skeptical, so Jakoubek said she took a picture of the winning ticket and the receipt from the lottery terminal and sent them to him.
The couple said they’re still working on a plan for their winnings.
The BIG Ticket is a $20 scratch game.
