Pastor wins lottery jackpot and was ‘shaking pretty good.’ But he left ticket in store

As he celebrated winning a massive lottery jackpot, a 64-year-old Iowa man realized he was without one important item he needed to claim his winnings.

His ticket.

Kevin Frey, a pastor from New Hampton, chalked the mistake up to him being “so excited and flustered” after winning the jackpot in the $500,000 Ca$h scratch-off game through the Iowa Lottery.

“I was shaking pretty good then, I think” Frey told lottery officials.

Frey purchased the winning ticket at a Casey’s convenience store in New Hampton. He went to his car to celebrate his $500,000 win, calling his wife and adult children to share the good news.

“And then I realized, ‘I don’t have it! It’s in the store!’” Frey said. “Fortunately, I was still in the parking lot of the Casey’s store and I ran back inside and asked the employee for the ticket. She was so flustered, she forgot to give it to me the first time. So, we finally got it on the right page.”

The $500,000 Ca$h game costs $50 to play and offers 14 top prizes. Odds of winning $500,000 are 1-in-1,219,433.30.

Frey said the prize will help him and his wife, Marian, as they embark on a move to the Des Moines area to be closer to family.

“This is going to help a lot. This is exciting in that way, too,” he told lottery officials. “It will be fun to be able to share some of it with some of our family and some of the charities that we support and have supported for a long time.”

Now $500,000 richer, Frey did not let his winnings effect his Sunday church sermon.

“They told me I did a nice job on the sermon, so I said, ‘Well, I guess there was something at work in the middle of all that,’” he said.

New Hampton is about 165 miles northeast of Des Moines.

This story was originally published February 21, 2024 at 2:44 PM with the headline "Pastor wins lottery jackpot and was ‘shaking pretty good.’ But he left ticket in store."