Mom tells son to keep his huge Iowa lottery win secret. ‘And then she told everybody’

When Justin Strother showed his mother his winning lottery ticket, she had one piece of advice for him.

“Don’t tell anybody,” he recalled her saying.

“And then she told everybody,” the 33-year-old Davenport man told Iowa Lottery officials when claiming his big win April 11.

But his mom wasn’t the only one who couldn’t help but share the exciting news, according to a news release from the Iowa Lottery.

After Strother bought his “$500,000 Ca$h” scratch game ticket at a Davenport convenience store, he scanned the ticket with the store’s self-checker. That’s when he realized he won the game’s top prize of $500,000.

He then rushed to tell his wife, who was waiting for him in the car, according to the release.

“I got in the car and I said, ‘Kylie, go, go go! We’ve got to put this in the safe!’” he told lottery officials. “She’s like, ‘What are you talking about?’ I said, ‘I just won half a million dollars!’ She goes, ‘No you didn’t!’ So I pulled it up on the app and she goes, ‘Oh, my gosh!’”

He said he pulled out Iowa Lottery’s mobile app on his phone throughout the day to prove his prize to others.

Strother, who is a self-employed flooring installer, also told the two men he works with about his win, according to the release. He had already predicted this big win to them, after all.

“I told them, just joking around, ‘I’m going to go buy one and I’m going to hit the top prize,’” he said. “I told them that for three days straight. And then I went and did it. I called them and I said, ‘You’re not going to believe me, but I hit the top prize.’”

Strother claimed the first of six $500,000 top prizes available through the new “$500,000 Ca$h” game that debuted April 4, officials said.

He and his wife plan to buy a three-bedroom home for their family of four, a new pickup truck and a camper, according to the release.

“It’s a re-start to life,” he told lottery officials. “It’s going to be debt-free for sure!”

Davenport is about 170 miles east of Des Moines.

This story was originally published April 12, 2023 at 11:54 AM with the headline "Mom tells son to keep his huge Iowa lottery win secret. ‘And then she told everybody’."