Sandra Potter is $50,000 richer. Iowa Lottery photo

DES MOINES (SPECIAL) – A Marshalltown woman stopped to pick up two of her favorite scratch tickets and ended up winning the top prize of $50,000!

Sandra Potter said she was in disbelief when her second “Double Payday” ticket revealed the top prize.

“I was just shaking. I called Christy at Casey’s and I said, ‘Christy, I think I just won $50,000!'” Potter said.

Potter said the cashier at Casey’s told her to stop by after work and have the ticket validated, so she did.

“It was a $50,000 winner and I was so excited,” Potter said.

Potter’s brother, Gary Phillips, accompanied to her claim her prize Friday at the Iowa Lottery’s headquarters in Des Moines.

“I thought I was going to win $50 because I saw the five-zero, but I kept scratching and then here’s these other three zeros!” she said. “It was so exciting; I’m still shaking.”

Potter, who works in an insurance agency, said she’s thinking about using some of her winnings to buy a new car. She purchased her winning ticket at Casey’s, 1009 W. Lincolnway in Marshalltown.

“It’s fun to play the lottery. I really like the scratch games,” Potter said.

In the past, Potter has won a prize of $7,777 playing scratch games.

“I was just complaining yesterday, ‘How come I can’t win big! I never win big! I guess it pays to complain,” Potter laughed.

Double Payday consists of an instant-scratch ticket on the front and a pull-tab game on the back. The ticket has three play areas on the front of the ticket and four tabs that can be pulled open on the back. Overall odds of winning are about 1 in 3.85.

Two prizes of $50,000 are still up for grabs in Double Payday as well as 12 prizes of $1,000, 39 prizes of $250 as well as 91 prizes of $100.

Since the Iowa Lottery’s start in 1985, its players have won more than $2.4 billion in prizes while the lottery has raised more than $1.2 billion for state programs. For more information about how lottery proceeds have helped make Iowa a better place to live, go to www.ialottery.com.