75-year-old grandma wins big Iowa lottery prize and family can’t believe it. ‘No way!’

While running an errand for one of her children, a 75-year-old mom of three and grandmother to four saw a Casey’s convenience store.

“On a whim,” Carolyn Carson decided to go buy a lottery ticket, according to a May 11 news release from the Iowa Lottery.

“I thought, ‘I should go over there and buy a ticket,’” the Iowa Falls woman told lottery officials. “So I went over there and got a ticket and drove home.”

She then scratched her “$500,000 CA$H” scratch game ticket and uncovered the game’s top prize, according to the news release. But she wasn’t sure if she could believe her eyes.

“I got my phone out, and I checked the app on my phone, and it went, ‘Ding! Congratulations! You won $500,000!’” Carson said when claiming her prize.

“I was shocked, just shocked,” she said. “I thought, ‘This couldn’t be happening to me! No way!’ You know, you hear about it, but you don’t think it can happen to you. But it can.”

She wasn’t the only one who had a hard time believing the big win.

Her husband, Mike, needed her to scan the ticket again just to be sure, according to the release. And other family members wanted photo proof of the “spur-of-the-moment” ticket.

“I called my kids and told them, and none of them believe me, either,” Carson said. “I had to send them a picture of the scratch ticket.”

Carson recently claimed her winnings, officials said, and she plans to invest.

This story was originally published May 11, 2023 at 2:19 PM with the headline "75-year-old grandma wins big Iowa lottery prize and family can’t believe it. ‘No way!’."