Rush-hour traffic leads Iowa lottery player to big win. ‘It was meant to be, I guess’

Shawn Holub was on his way home from work when a “traffic jam” prevented him from buying an Iowa lottery ticket from his “usual store,” officials said.

“Traffic was really bad and I couldn’t get into the lane that I wanted to be in, so I just went on down the road to Kwik Star,” Holub, who works in sales, told state lottery officials.

The 53-year-old Marion man bought a “$50,000 Super Crossword” scratch game ticket in Cedar Rapids, then went home and had his wife, Paula, do the scratching, according to an Iowa Lottery news release.

“She wasn’t saying anything,” Holub recalled. “She looked at me and was like, ‘You might want to scan this.’”

He scanned the ticket with his phone — and realized he had won the game’s top prize of $50,000.

“We didn’t know what to do,” he said when claiming his winnings on May 24. “We just kind of stood there and looked at each other.”

He and his wife plan to use the prize money to work on home improvements, officials said.

“It was meant to be, I guess,” Holub said.

This story was originally published May 26, 2023 at 8:49 AM with the headline "Rush-hour traffic leads Iowa lottery player to big win. ‘It was meant to be, I guess’."