A Louisburg, NC truck driver was waiting to pick up a load in Clear Lake, Iowa. While he was waiting, Mark Gontz, 54, decided to grab something to eat and purchased two Iowa “Holiday Black” scratchers tickets.
Gontz said he would not have stopped to buy the tickets had his load not been delayed.
Gontz told the Iowa lottery that the first $5 scratcher wasn’t a winner, but when he scratched the second one, he realized it was a $50,000 winner– the jackpot prize.
“Actually, I couldn’t believe it,” he said. “I had to go over to your little ‘check your card, your ticket’ and I scanned it like five times to make sure of it!”
Gontz called his wife to inform her of his earnings. He told the Iowa Lottery that while he had a hard time believing he had actually won, his wife immediately started making plans for the money.
“I called my wife right away and she’s like, ‘Oh, great, we can pay off some things!'” Gontz said.
While the Gontzs plan to use some of their winnings to pay off bills, Mark Gontz says he also plans to take his wife out to a nice dinner.