Double the luck: Two $100,000 lottery winners at Casey’s in Iowa | State and Regional News

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Lottery lightning has struck twice at a convenience store in Glenwood, Iowa.

Two men, both from Glenwood, collected $100,000 Iowa Lottery jackpots in the span of a week after purchasing scratch-off tickets at the Casey’s on South Locust Street.

Jacob Harper, 33, claimed his prize from a “$100,000 Mega Crossword” lottery ticket March 28. He paid $10 for the ticket and was the 16th winner in the game.







Joshua Kisler bought his winning ticket Monday at a Casey’s store in Glenwood, a week after another $100,000 winner was sold there.




Joshua Kisler claimed his winnings Monday from a $20 “Super 20s” ticket he bought at the same store.

Mary Neubauer, an Iowa Lottery spokeswoman, said lottery tickets are distributed randomly around the state. It’s just a coincidence that two big winners popped up so close together in the same town of 5,500 people, 25 miles southeast of Omaha.

“We look for patterns when we’re talking about random events,” she said. “But it’s fun when something like that happens.”

And it’s a rush for those who win.

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Harper told lottery officials he scratched off his winning ticket at a late-night gathering with friends. Winning the top prize in the crossword game requires completing six words on the ticket.

He said he felt like time stood still when he realized he had won.

“I’m like, ‘No way! This doesn’t happen,’” Harper told lottery officials. “I counted again and again. I think I got up to like 10 times … before it finally sunk in that I just won $100,000.”

Although it was 2 a.m., he left a message on his parents’ answering machine. They called him back after they woke up.







Glenwood -- JacobHarper

Jacob Harper, 33, plans to use his winnings to quit his job and work full time at a business he and two friends recently started.




“My mom just started screaming,” he said. “My dad’s laughing in the background, I can hear him on the phone. They were ecstatic.”

Luck apparently runs in the family. They won a $10,000 scratch-off prize last year, Harper said.

He plans to quit his job and work full time at Omaha Computing Solutions, a business he and two friends recently started.

“It’s life changing,” he said.

Harper and Kisler aren’t the first Glenwood residents to win life-changing lottery prizes. In 2018, Karen Harger won a $1 million Powerball prize.

Neubauer said the Casey’s in Glenwood is a “busy location, for sure,” with more than $256,000 in lottery sales last year.

Now it’s a lucky store, too.

“You never know where the big one is going to come,” Neubauer said. “Glenwood is certainly on a run.”