Pike wins $50,000 in scratch-off game

     A Jones County man said a convenience store clerk’s scratch ticket choice led him to a big prize recently.

     Stuart Pike, Monticello, claimed one of the $50,000 top prizes available in the Iowa Lottery’s “$50,000 Holiday Super Crossword” scratch game.

     The 56-year-old said he bought his winning ticket about three weeks ago at Karde’s 151, 2100 S. Main St. in Monticello.

     “I asked the lady for a lottery ticket and she gave me a choice of two; so I took this one,” Pike told lottery employees as he claimed his prize at the lottery’s regional office in Cedar Rapids.

     Pike said he plays scratch tickets occasionally, but he prefers the lottery’s popular Crossword game.

     “I got down to the ninth word and I’d already dialed my wife because I was going to win $5,000 and I thought, ‘What the heck, I wonder if that 10^th word is on there?’” he said. “Sure enough, it was. It was pretty neat.”

     Pike said his wife is still skeptical of his lottery win.

     “She didn’t believe me until she had the check. I don’t think she ever will,” he said. “She still thinks I’m pulling a big bluff.”

     Pike, who works at a paper factory in Cedar Rapids, said he doesn’t have “extravagant” plans for his lottery winnings, but he does plan to splurge on himself and his wife after helping three children through college.

     The $50,000 Holiday Super Crossword ticket was a $5 scratch game.