WALNUT – Walnut resident April Miller may not have won billions of dollars in the Mega Millions lottery drawing, but she was still a big winner around Christmas.
According to Iowa lottery officials, Miller won $30,000 in the Merry Money scratch game, which was a $3 scratch game that started in October, and ended earlier this month with the conclusion of the holiday season. Miller said her husband, Rory, bought the ticket at the Kum and Go near Walnut, and gave it to her for Christmas.
He put it in her Christmas stocking, and she saw it, but didn’t scratch it until later that night after the Christmas party was over, getting quite a shock.
“(My husband) started scratching a ticket, and so I started scratching mine,” she said. “I’m looking at it, and I couldn’t believe it. I’m telling him, (I thought) I won $30,000.”
To try and confirm whether or not she had won, Miller downloaded the Iowa Lottery App to check.
“I still didn’t believe it, so I downloaded the app, checked it, and I had won,” she said.
Miller said her husband was in shock, too, at first, but once they both realized what had happened, they were excited and had to tell somebody.
“We were screaming and jumping up and down,” he said. “And of course, I had to call all my family, and Facetime them to say ‘We won.’ And they didn’t believe me, so I had to send them a picture of the app showing that I won.”
Miller said she and her husband are in the process of remodeling their house, so some of the winnings will be used to pay for that, and he would like to buy a shed. Otherwise, she wants to do some “shopping,” and go on a trip “somewhere warm.”
