Cedar Rapids man wins lottery prize — again

A Cedar Rapids man has claimed $75,000 in lottery prizes for the second time in two months, according to officials with the Iowa Lottery Authority.

Wiley Tuley told lottery officials he knew he had won all the prizes in the Oct. 6 evening Pick 4 drawing, but waited to claim part of his winnings. He purchased multiple plays of differing amounts involving different types of bets for that Pick 4 drawing, and won by matching all four numbers in the exact order drawn: 7-3-2-5.

Tuley claimed half of his prizes in October and had planned to wait until the new year to claim the rest. But he changed his mind and instead claimed them Thursday at the lottery’s Cedar Rapids regional office. He said he plans to save the winnings from his lottery ticket purchases that included numbers based on old employee identification he had at his last job before he retired.

Lottery officials say the Cedar Rapids man is no stranger to big lottery wins, noting that in 2014 Tuley won 42 Pick 4 prizes totaling $200,000. He said his latest win was just as sweet.

“It feels just as good,” he said. “I think I was more surprised this time than I was last time. I looked at it and (said), ‘You’ve got to be kidding me!’ I was very happy.”

Pick 4 has been offered in Iowa since September 2003 and features odds of one in 10,000 of winning the game’s $30,000 top prize.