CLIVE — A Clear Lake woman admits she almost disposed of a scratch ticket on which she won a $100,000 prize.
“I almost threw it away!” Pamela Litzel, 70, said with a laugh on Tuesday as she claimed her prize at the Iowa Lottery’s Mason City regional office. “I didn’t think it was a winner, and I thought, ‘Well, I’m just going to check over these old tickets before I throw them.’ And lo and behold!”
Litzel won the second top prize in the “$100,000 Mega Crossword” scratch game. She bought her winning ticket at Randy’s Neighborhood Market, 20 S. Fourth St. in Clear Lake.
“It was one of those days where I must’ve been in a hurry,” she said. “When I started scratching it, I got interrupted and thought, ‘Well, it’s not a winner.’ So I just folded it and put it in the side pocket of the door of my car.”
A week later as Litzel was cleaning her car, she gave the ticket a second look. She realized it was a winning ticket and took it back to the store, where a scan on the self-checker revealed she’d won $100,000.
“I just realized it on Sunday, and I’m still kind of walking on air,” she said.
Litzel, who works for a custom cabinetry company, said she’s had her eye on retirement for a while. Now after her big win, she hopes she finally can.
The $100,000 Mega Crossword game is a $10 scratch game that features 46 top prizes of $100,000, 92 prizes of $10,000 and overall odds of 1 in 3.29.