A Fort Dodge couple took home a 200-point-eight million dollar Powerball Jackpot Wednesday — and though they had the only verified winning ticket — several other people tried to get their hands on the money. Iowa Lottery Director Ed Stanek says one woman from Minnesota called the office several times.
Stanek says the woman said she was in Fort Dodge and bought the winning ticket, but when she went into a store the woman says her dog ate the ticket. He says a truck driver called to say he had the winning ticket but had been fired, and the winning ticket was still in the company truck and the man said he couldn’t get to it.
Stanek says he heard from others who had even less plausible stories. Stanek says a man with a southern accent called and said he had left the winning ticket in his hotel room in Iowa. Stanek says the man though couldn’t remember what city he was in, the name of the hotel, the store he bought the ticket in or the day or time he bought the ticket. Stanek says another man claimed to have bought the winning ticket, but then accidentally burned his ticket when he cleaned out the car he had borrowed from a friend.
Stanek says the man told the Lottery he couldn’t remember the details of the purchase of the ticket because the man had suffered a head injury nine years earlier and the accident affected his memory. Stanek says the Iowa Lottery doesn’t verify any claim until the get the actual ticket at Lottery headquarters.