CLIVE, Iowa (KCAU) — An Iowa woman said she will stop reminding her husband to wear his glasses now that a mistake, caused by his eyesight, led to them winning a $150,000 Powerball prize.
Barbara Haley, 68, of Sioux City, claimed the prize after the ticket that she and her husband, Steve, bought matched four of five white balls and the Powerball in Saturday’s drawing, according to a release from the Iowa Lottery.
They were one number away from winning that night’s $23.2 million jackpot.
The couple’s big win wasn’t without an additional bit of luck. When Steve Haley was filling out the play slip, he mistakenly put in a different number than the one they usually play.
“When he filled it out, he accidentally put an 8 instead of a 9,” Barbara Haley told officials on Tuesday as she claimed their prize. “We thought we were going to get $300. Because he put an 8 instead, we got $150,000.
“I’m always saying, ‘Why don’t you just wear your glasses?’ I’m going to quit complaining to him,” she said with a grin.
She said they purchased the winning ticket at their “lucky place to buy tickets” — at a Sioux City car wash. Having played the same numbers for years based on family birthdays, they didn’t bother to check the ticket right away. On a trip for groceries days later, they tried to redeem what they thought was a $300 prize. That’s when they realized it was much more.
“I started buying groceries, and Steve went to cash it in,” Barbara Haley said. “That’s when we found out. I get paged to the front while I’m shopping, and they’re like, ‘Barb Haley, come to customer service.’ I’m like, ‘Oh, he probably just doesn’t know where I am in the store.’”
The winning numbers in Saturday’s drawing were 5-8-17-27-28 and Powerball 14. The Power Play number was 3. The couple’s initial $50,000 prize was tripled because they opted for the $1 Power Play add-on, which multiplies non-jackpot prize amounts by up to 10 times.
Haley said she and her husband aren’t sure yet what they’ll do with their winnings.
“I’m sure we’ll keep things status quo,” she said. “We haven’t really decided. It all just happened kind of fast.”