CLIVE, Iowa — An Illinois man has claimed two prizes he won on a Powerball® ticket he purchased in Clinton, with one prize a lot bigger than the other.
Mark Dann of Fulton, Ill., claimed a total of $50,004 in prizes from Saturday’s drawing. On one of his plays, he won $4. On another, he won $50,000.
“It’s just unbelievable,” Dann, 55, told officials on Monday as he claimed his prizes at the Iowa Lottery’s Cedar Rapids regional office. “I’m always thinking that I’m going to win $10, $20, maybe $100, but me, myself, I won $50,000. Unbelievable.”
Dann, who owns a gym in Clinton, said he had left work the night of the drawing and stopped at Porter’s Convenient 66, 1512 Lincoln Way, for a chicken salad wrap. While there, he decided to buy a handful of plays for that night’s Powerball drawing.
He forgot about his ticket until the next morning, as he was leaving his house to go back to the gym. He decided to scan it with the Iowa Lottery mobile app to see if he won.
“While the garage door was going down, I said, ‘I’m going to check my tickets,’ and it said $50,004,” he recalled. “I’m like, ‘Uh, what?'”
He scanned his ticket again, then took it back to the store, where an employee verified his win on the store’s lottery terminal.
“I said, ‘Hey, tell the two girls who worked yesterday that that was the best chicken salad wrap worth $50,000 of my life,” Dann said with a laugh.
The winning numbers in Saturday’s drawing were 2-8-15-19-58 and Powerball 10. The Power Play® number was 2.
Dann said he plans to use part of his winnings to pay off his motorcycle, put a new stereo on it and purchase new glasses and a new mattress.
Players in $2 Powerball choose their first five numbers from a pool of 69, and another number – called the Powerball – from a separate pool of 26. The Power Play option is available for an extra $1 per play.
Since getting its start in April 1992 in 15 states with jackpots that started at a guaranteed $2 million, Powerball has grown into one of the world’s biggest and most recognizable lottery games. Today Powerball is played by 48 lotteries across the country with drawings at 9:59 p.m. on Mondays, Wednesdays and Saturdays.
