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Mom makes second stop when store runs of ice. It led to a big Iowa lottery win

Mom makes second stop when store runs of ice. It led to a big Iowa lottery win

Miami Herald21-05-2025
When a convenience store was out of ice for her family's drinks, an Iowa woman was forced to go to a second store, where she won a huge lottery prize.
'I don't know how it happened, but it happened,' Heather Cole, the 36-year-old winner from Fort Dodge, told Iowa Lottery officials while accepting her jackpot prize May 19.
Cole was driving her three children to dentist appointments when they made their multiple stops. While at Coalville Stop-N-Shop near Dodge City, she purchased two Silver Streak scratch-off tickets with $20 from previous winnings.
'And lo and behold, I went to scratch it and revealed $100,000!' Cole said, according to a news release.
She is the second person to win the top prize in the Silver Streak game, which costs $10 to play. Odds of winning the jackpot are 1 in 123,394.29.
Cole said she 'was almost in tears' when she told her children the good news, per the release.
And she has her family in mind for what's to come. She told lottery officials she hopes to use the money to take a family vacation, as well as pay off debt.
'I knew one day hopefully I would get it,' Cole said, according to the release.
Fort Dodge is about a 95-mile drive northwest from Des Moines.
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