Iowa man thought $25,000 lottery prize was only $25 due to scratching error

Dec. 29 : An Iowa man who attempted to redeem a winning lottery ticket for $25 found himself rebuffed for the best of reasons — he had actually won $25,000.

Chad Wilming, 43, of Cedar Falls, said he made an error when scratching off his Holiday Time Bingo lottery ticket that made him believe he had won only $25.
“I thought it was a $25 winner and I forgot to scratch off the bonus numbers and two of the bonus numbers completed the ‘X’ [pattern] on the ticket, but I didn’t [see] that until the guy behind the counter told me,” Wilming told officials when he claimed his winnings Wednesday at the Iowa Lottery’s headquarters.

Wilming said he only buys lottery tickets about once a year.

“I just saw that there were some [holiday scratch tickets] there and I’m like, ‘Well, it’s the holidays so I’ll just buy four,'” he said.

He said his winnings will go toward buying a minivan and a pop-up travel trailer.

“It’s kind of a load off, we don’t have to worry about other stuff,” he said. UPI.com