OSKALOOSA WOMAN HAS TROUBLE SLEEPING AFTER WINNING $50,000 POWERBALL® PRIZE
Susan Gerard (photo provided)
Susan Gerard Wins Big Prize in Saturday’s drawing
DES MOINES, Iowa – A regular Powerball player from southern Iowa said she decided to buy a ticket on her way home from a recent Des Moines shopping trip, and the decision paid off.
Susan Gerard of Oskaloosa typically buys Powerball tickets at a local convenience store, but Saturday she decided to try her luck at a new store. She ended up winning a $50,000 prize on a ticket she purchased at Casey’s, 1419 First Ave. N in Altoona.
“I’ve never won anything,” Gerard said. “Powerball has not been good to me, but it has now.”
Gerard matched four white balls and the Powerball number in Saturday’s $130 million jackpot drawing to win a $10,000 prize. And since she added the Power Play® option to her ticket for an extra dollar, her prize multiplied to $50,000.
“I usually normally don’t buy the extra Power Play, but the last month and a half I felt lucky for some reason,” she said. “So I went ahead and got it again and was that a good investment.”
The winning numbers in that night’s drawing were 5-6-29-35-51 and Powerball 21. The Power Play number drawn was 5. The jackpot is at an estimated $40 million for Saturday’s drawing.
Because of her recent string of bad luck playing the Powerball game, Gerard said she didn’t check her ticket until Sunday morning. When she saw that she had matched four white balls and the Powerball, she said she was in disbelief.
“I didn’t sleep very well (Sunday) night wondering, ‘Did I read that right?’” Gerard told lottery employees as she claimed her prize Monday at the lottery’s headquarters in Des Moines. “I was ready to come up here about three o’clock in the morning and sit here and wait.”
Gerard and her husband, Gary, are retired. The couple said their lottery winnings will be used to pay bills. They also plan to share some of their winnings with their son and his family.
Winning numbers may be checked at the lottery website at www.ialottery.com or through the winning numbers hot line at (515) 323-4633. Winning numbers may also be checked with lottery retail outlets or by calling the lottery at (515) 725-7900 from 8 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. Monday-Friday.
Players may visit the Iowa Lottery at 2323 Grand Ave. in Des Moines or go to one of the lottery’s regional offices in Council Bluffs, Storm Lake, Mason City or Cedar Rapids to claim prizes.
Since the lottery’s start in 1985, its players have won more than $3.2 billion in prizes while the lottery has raised more than $1.5 billion for the state programs that benefit all Iowans.
Today, lottery proceeds in Iowa have three main purposes: They provide support for veterans, help for a variety of significant projects through the state General Fund, and backing for the Vision Iowa program, which was implemented to create tourism destinations and community attractions in the state and build and repair schools.
