Northwest Iowa pair split big lottery prize

DES MOINES -- Rural Whiting resident Keith Olson says today ranks among the biggest days of his life.

That's because the 85-year-old retiree and his son-in-law, Rolle Zellers, 51, of Sioux City, split $700,000 in winnings after cashing in an Iowa Lottery ticket that matched five numbers in last weekend's Powerball drawing. The winning ticket was worth $1 million because Zellers had bought a Power Play option that multiplied the prize by five – making it a $1 million payout minus the $300,000 for federal and state taxes that were withheld.

“This was a big surprise,” said Olson, a World War II veteran whose previous best when playing the state lottery was a $50 winning ticket. “I'm pretty happy about it.”

He expected his good fortune would be big news in Whiting, a town of about 700 residents in Monona County in northwest Iowa where residents were abuzz since word spread that a $1 million winning ticket was sold at a Casey's convenience store in Onawa.

“I'll have a lot of friends,” he added.

Olson's good fortune was due to his son-in-law, who accompanied him on a hospital visit to Onawa, where Olson's wife, Joyce, was recuperating from surgery, and decided to slip out and buy them each a ticket in Saturday's Powerball drawing since the two men are regular lottery players.

“I told him I'm going to go get a lotto ticket because it's getting late and I don't want to miss the time. I started walking out and he said, well, wait a minute, get me one, too,” Zellers said. “So I went and got him one and brought them back and the rest is history.”

Zellers bought two tickets with randomly selected numbers. He kept one and gave one to Olson, who later watched the televised drawing and thought he had a ticket with three correct numbers worth a small amount until he read the Sunday paper and determined all five numbers matched but not the Powerball.

“I thought it was about $300 or $400. I didn't think it was that big of an amount of money for five numbers. So I'm pretty happy about it,” he said.

Olson was insistent that his son-in-law share equally in the winnings and the pair drove to the Lottery headquarters in Des Moines today to pose with an oversized check and collect their prize money.

“I'll spend mine pretty fast,” said Olson, who planned to use his share of the money to help his family members. The Olsons have three sons, a daughter, nine grandchildren and 14 great-grandchildren.

Zellers, a feed packer at the Land O' Lakes-Purina Feed plant in Sioux City, said he planned to pay off his hours and buy his wife a new car with his winnings. He planned to continue working as well despite becoming the Iowa Lottery's 14

^th

$1 million winner since 2008.

The ticket purchased in Onawa was the only ticket sold nationwide to win a $1 million prize in Saturday's Powerball drawing. No one claimed the $79.1 million Powerball jackpot so the prize grows to $97 million in Wednesday's drawing. Zellers indicated they probably will invest a few bucks in that drawing because they plan to continue playing the lottery game.

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rod.boshart@gazcomm.com