Cedar Rapids man wins $500K in Iowa Lottery scratch game

David Smutz was on his way to a birthday party Saturday when he learned he’d won $500,000.

Smutz, 71, bought an Iowa Lottery “Mega Bucks” scratch ticket at Hy-Vee Drugstore, 4825 Johnson Ave. NW in Cedar Rapids. He was riding in the car with his wife while he scratched the ticket.

“I was sitting over in the passenger seat and I was scratching away and all of a sudden I went, ‘Oh … my!’,” Smutz told the Iowa Lottery. “She looked and goes, ‘That’s not real!’ And I said, ‘No, it’s real!’.”

It is the first $500,000 top prize in the “Mega Bucks” scratch game.

Smutz and his wife arrived at the friend’s birthday party and announced his win, but no one believed him. He told lottery officials he scanned his ticket with the Iowa Lottery’s mobile app and showed the message on the screen to his fellow partygoers to prove he’d won.

“It was old pop here,” he joked. “I hit $500,000 and they were all my buddies all of a sudden,” he said of the people at the party.

Smutz claimed his prize Monday at lottery headquarters in Clive.

The general manager at a trucking company, Smutz said he has no plans to retire because he still enjoys working. He said he’ll use his winnings to buy a new car and continue traveling with his wife.

“We’ll see if I want to travel a little farther now,” he said.

“Mega Bucks“ is a $50 scratch game from the Iowa Lottery. It offers 13 top prizes of $500,000 and 12 prizes of $25,000.