Bremer County man wins $25,000 lottery prize | Waverly Newspapers

Thoren, 43, of Tripoli won the second top prize in the Iowa Lottery’s “The Perfect Gift” scratch game. He purchased his winning ticket at Casey’s, 576 N. Main Ave. in Britt.

“The lady, when I bought it, said, ‘Oh, you’re feeling lucky today?’” Thoren recalled. “I actually told her, ‘No, not really.’”

He played the ticket when he got out to his truck, and when he uncovered the big prize, rushed back inside the store to check it.

“Shock, disbelief and then overwhelming excitement,” Thoren said. “I really, truly wish that every person on Earth could have that feeling once.”

Thoren said he plans to save most of his winnings, but will use a portion of it to pay off a maintenance bill from his semi and buy lunch for the store employees who were present when he purchased his ticket.

“It’s a feeling like no other,” he said.

The Perfect Gift is a $20 scratch game that features 13 top prizes of $25,000, 16 prizes of $10,000 and overall odds of 1 in 2.64. For more information about this game and the number of prizes still available, visit ialottery.com.

Players can enter nonwinning holiday scratch tickets into the lottery’s Holiday Cash Bash Play It Again promotion from now through 9:59 a.m. on Jan. 10. The promotion will award $355,000 in cash prizes, including a grand prize of $100,000. For rules and complete details, visit ialottery.com.

About the Iowa Lottery: Since the lottery’s start in 1985, its players have won more than $5.2 billion in prizes while the lottery has raised more than $2.2 billion for state programs. Today, lottery proceeds help our state in multiple ways. They support Iowa veterans and their families through the Iowa Veterans Trust Fund. They help the families of Iowa peace officers, firefighters and corrections employees who die in the line of duty. And they provide help for a variety of significant projects through the state General Fund.