Man buys lottery tickets to give him ‘something to do’ while eating. He hits a jackpot

Before sitting down to enjoy his turkey dinner at his local grocery store, an Iowa man got the sudden urge to buy lottery tickets.

For Allen Walker, a 63-year-old man from Algona, the $100,000 Mega Crossword scratch-off tickets were just what he needed to pass the time.

“I went out there on Wednesday to have turkey dinner at the Hy-Vee,” he said in a Nov. 28 news release. “I thought, ‘Well, just for the heck of it, I’ll pick up a couple tickets right now and then it’ll give me something to do besides eating.’”

His dinner time decision led to a $100,000 jackpot win.

As Walker was scratching off one of the tickets, he thought there was something wrong with his ticket because he did not believe he was a jackpot winner.

“I thought that this has got to be some kind of mistake: I missed something or scratched off something I should’ve have,” he told Iowa Lottery officials. “Then even after I confirmed every single letter that was scratch off, I still had to go up and have them check it with the (terminal) before I actually believed I had a $100,000 winner.”

Allen said he plans on investing his winnings.

The $100,000 Mega Crossword game costs $10 to play and features 46 top prizes. Odds of winning the $100,000 prize are 1-in-119,287.

Algona is about 135 miles northwest of Des Moines.

This story was originally published November 28, 2023 at 3:39 PM with the headline "Man buys lottery tickets to give him ‘something to do’ while eating. He hits a jackpot."