An Iowa man who won $150,000 on a scratch-off ticket was forced to drive his 24-year-old Chevy Suburban truck 50 miles through a snowstorm to pick up his winnings.
At the time he discovered he won, Daniel Bragg’s 2001 Chevy Suburban was on its last legs after 849,000 miles on the clock over more than two decades. There was also a heavy snowstorm outside, and it was evening on New Years Eve, so the Lottery headquarters was closed.
Nevertheless, on January 2, Bragg braved the treacherous, snowy roads in his 20-year-old car, and picked up his due winnings from the Lottery HQ in Clive, Iowa.
His first words after the win? “I’ve gotta get a car…it’s a beater. It’s done pretty good. But I’ve got to get a car.”
The Win
Bragg, 46, purchased the $10 Money Gift scratch-off from a Fareway store in his hometown of Newton, Iowa.
He scratched the ticket on New Year’s Eve, realizing he’d won the $150,000 top prize. Two days later, he drove his Chevy Suburban, probably for one of the last times, to get his winnings.
After Bragg’s win, there remains one solitary top prize $150,000 Money Gift ticket left in the wild.
Bragg posed with his Lottery winning ticket, as winners are required to. But not many of them take photos with their old car outside the lottery building, as posted here on the Iowa Lottery’s social media.
Bragg said he plans to take a holiday with some of the winnings, as well as buying a smaller but newer pickup truck. Although he didn’t rule out fixing up and upgrading the old Chevy at some point.
“Oh, it’ll be a major upgrade. This vehicle, though, could still pull anything. They said they built these like a tank, and yeah, it’s a tank,” he said.
This isn’t the only recent story of someone hitting a big lottery win just when it was needed the most.
In late 2024, a computer maintenance engineer from Norfolk, England, won £500,000 ($621,150) on the country’s National Lottery – exactly one year after undergoing successful cancer surgery.
Earlier that year, a Virginia man won $1 million on the lottery and gave it all to his recently married son and daughter-in-law.
David is an online casino expert who specializes in online slots and boasts over 10 years experience writing about iGaming. He has written for a wide range of notable publications, including eSports Insider and WordPlay Magazine.
David graduated Derby University with a BA Degree in English Literature and Creative Writing.
