Des Moines man celebrating after winning Lucky for Life lottery

DES MOINES, Iowa — A Des Moines man claimed the Lucky for Life prize of $25,000 a year after Monday’s drawing.

Paul Freeman, 59, was checking his ticket on Tuesday night when it rang in as a winner. Freeman thought it was an error and proceeded to check the ticket three times on the store’s lottery self-checker.

“I’ve been checking the ticket at numerous locations to make sure that it was real,” Freeman said. “It continues to say the same amount each and every time. And on my phone app, it said the same thing last night.”

He missed the Lucky Ball but managed to win $25,000 a year by matching the first five numbers. Freeman, a wine consultant in Urbandale, claimed the prize Wednesday at Iowa Lottery headquarters in Clive.

The winning numbers were 15-17-35-40-45 and Lucky Ball 6.

“Everybody always dreams about winning this, thinks about winning it, and now it finally happened,” Freeman said. “It’s something I’ve always thought about: If I did win, what would I do? So, it’s just putting pegs in place and making it happen.”

Freeman had the choice to receive $25,000 a year or take a lump-sum option of $390,000 now, he chose the lump-sum option. Freeman already has plans for the money — getting out of debt.

“My wife had some surgeries, she had some medical issues, and she’s on disability right now,” he said. “This is really going to go to paying off all of our debt and investing the rest of the money to getting back to where we need to be so hopefully in seven years, we can retire comfortably and retire happy.”

Price Chopper at 1819 Beaver Ave sold Freeman the lucky ticket and will receive a $500 bonus.

Since the games debut in 2016, Freeman is the 20th person to win Lucky for Life.

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