Woman cleaning house finds week-old Iowa lottery ticket. It brought tears to her eyes

For a week, a woman’s jackpot-winning lottery ticket rested on a desk at her Iowa home.

She had yet to scratch it off.

Pamela Willard, of Waukee, admits she forgot about the Crazy Hot Cash ticket she purchased at a Hy-Vee grocery store. It wasn’t until she was cleaning her home a week later when she uncovered the ticket.

When she finally scratched it off, she realized it was a $50,000 jackpot winner, according to the Iowa Lottery.

“I had tears in my eyes. I was just beyond ecstatic,” Willard told lottery officials. “From that point on, doing housework wasn’t a big deal because you’ve got this big smile on your face, like, ‘Oh, my gosh! I actually did win!’”

Willard plans on using the winnings for a new fence and a vacation with her husband, lottery officials said.

There are eight top prizes in the Crazy Hot Cash game. The odds of wining the $50,000 jackpot are 1-in-124,402.50.

“It’s one of those things that’s unexpected,” Willard said. “You always hope for it, but in the back of your mind you think, ‘Somebody else is going to win, not me.’”

Waukee is about 15 miles west of Des Moines.

This story was originally published March 16, 2023 at 5:55 AM with the headline "Woman cleaning house finds week-old Iowa lottery ticket. It brought tears to her eyes."