Iowa woman wins $30K after husband puts scratch-off ticket in Christmas stocking

CLIVE, Iowa — This was a nice stocking stuffer.

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According to a news release from the Iowa Lottery, April Miller, 43, of Walnut, won $30,000 on a $3 scratch-off ticket given to her as a Christmas gift by her husband.

“You just don’t believe it,” Miller said in a statement Monday when she claimed her prize at lottery headquarters in Clive. “It was just unreal. I still don’t believe I won that much.”

Miller won the big prize in the Iowa Lottery’s “Merry Money” scratch-off game. lottery officials said. Her husband bought the ticket at the Kum & Go store in Walnut and put it into his wife’s Christmas stocking.

Miller scratched the ticket after her family’s Christmas festivities and then scanned it with the Iowa Lottery mobile app to confirm her big Christmas gift.

“We were screaming and jumping up and down and freaking out,” Miller said in a statement. “And then of course, (I) had to call all my family. I FaceTimed 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.”

After federal and state taxes were withheld, Miller had a lump sum of $21,300.

Miller said she plans to use the money to make home improvements, buy a new purse and take a tropical vacation, lottery officials said.

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