Lottery player makes ‘darn sure’ his Iowa ticket is a winner – then wakes up his wife

An Iowa man said he wanted to be certain his ticket was a winner before telling his wife the news, lottery officials said.

“I made darn sure it was a winner before I woke my wife up and told her,” 64-year-old Gregory Paine, of Clive, told Iowa Lottery officials Feb. 19.

“I didn’t want to wake her up for no reason,” Paine said.

But Paine had more than 30,000 reasons to wake her.

The husband had won the $30,756.95 Cherry Twist Progressive InstaPlay jackpot on a ticket he bought at Hy-Vee in Webster City, lottery officials said.

“The game’s jackpot starts at $2,000 and increases with each ticket sold statewide until it is won,” lottery officials said.

“I didn’t really believe it until I was standing in front of the (lottery backdrop), holding the check up,” Paine said.

Clive is about 10 miles west of Des Moines.

This story was originally published February 21, 2024 at 6:23 PM with the headline "Lottery player makes ‘darn sure’ his Iowa ticket is a winner – then wakes up his wife."

Lauren Liebhaber

mcclatchy-newsroom

Lauren Liebhaber covers international science news with a focus on taxonomy and archaeology at McClatchy. She holds a bachelor’s degree from St. Lawrence University and a master’s degree from the Newhouse School at Syracuse University. Previously, she worked as a data journalist at Stacker.