"Lucky" feeling leads Waukon woman to $10,000 lottery prize

A northeast Iowa woman says a lucky feeling led her to a big lottery prize this past week. Wendy Norton of Waukon claimed the 23rd of 72 prizes of $10,000 available in the lottery’s “$250,000 Riches” scratch game. She said she bought her winning ticket at Kwik Star, located at 101 Rossville Road in Waukon.

Norton said she’s an occasional lottery player but she thought she’d try her luck on the $250,000 Riches scratch game because her son-in-law had just won $100 playing it.

“I was driving home the next day, feeling a little lucky, and thought, ‘I’m going to go get me one of those,’” Norton told lottery employees Wednesday, December 7 as she claimed her prize at the lottery’s regional office in Cedar Rapids.

The 54-year-old said she scratched off her ticket after finishing her errands that day. “I started to scratch it off and it was the last thing I scratched off on that ticket,” Norton said. “And then I thought that I wasn’t seeing it right, so I got out the magnifying glass and then I started shaking because it’s like, ‘I really think I won this!’”

Norton said she needed confirmation, though, before she started to celebrate. So she returned to Kwik Star and checked her ticket using a lottery self-checker inside the store. She also had a store clerk verify that she won $10,000. “He’s like, ‘Yeah, you’ve got a big one here,’” she said. “They’re like, ‘This never happens in Waukon.’”

Norton said a home remodeling project is at the top of her list after winning the lottery. She said she also plans to save a portion of her winnings for retirement.

The $250,000 Riches scratch game is a $20 ticket. More details about how to play this game, and the number of prizes still up for grabs in it can be found on the Iowa Lottery’s website, www.ialottery.com.