West Des Moines, Iowa, woman Christi Longstaff won a $500,000 lottery prize and plans to buy a new car, share with family and save for the future.
Christi Longstaff of West Des Moines, Iowa, said she did not get much sleep after scratching off a $500,000 lottery prize at home.
Longstaff won the sixth top prize in the Iowa Lottery’s “500X” scratch game after purchasing her ticket at Maverik, located at 330 S. Jordan Creek Parkway in West Des Moines. She waited until about 11:30 p.m. to scratch the ticket at home, where she initially struggled to believe what she was seeing.
“I saw it said $500,000 so then I got my phone out,” Longstaff said. “I scanned it probably 10 times. It was just unreal. I still didn’t believe it, and I’ve probably scanned it 20 times since then.”
The repeated checks continued into the night. Longstaff said the surprise of discovering the prize meant she did not sleep that night.
“I waited until about 11:30 at night to scratch it, so that was a big shock,” she said. “I didn’t think it was a winner. I kept scanning it and scanning it and of course I didn’t sleep that night, so yeah, it was pretty exciting.”
Longstaff claimed her $500,000 prize on Tuesday at the Iowa Lottery’s main office in Clive. The prize claim also fell on her 65th birthday.
With the winnings, Longstaff said she plans to buy a new car, share some of the money with family and save for the future.
