A PASTOR who won £400,000 in a lottery jackpot accidentally left behind his scratch card after getting too excited.
Preacher Kevin Frey, 64, was so flustered by the massive win he walked out of the store where he bought it leaving the ticket on the counter.
Kevin, who is a long-time pastor at Trinity Lutheran Church in New Hampshire, bought his winning ticket at Casey’s, 615 N. Linn Ave – and claimed the 8th of 14 top prizes in the £400,000 cash scratch game.
The absent-minded pastor from Iowa soon started to call his family and friends to share the massive news.
But when one of his grown-up children asked for a picture of the lotto ticket, the priest realised he did not have the ticket on him.
Kevin said: “I was so excited and flustered that I left the ticket inside Casey’s store and went out to the car and started calling everybody, calling my wife at first and everybody else.
“And then I realised I don’t have it on me.”
Fortunately, Kervin was still in the parking lot of the store when he learnt about his careless mistake.
He then dashed inside the store to get hold of the”life-changing” piece of paper.
“I was shaking pretty good then, I think,” Kevin said.
“Fortunately, I was still in the parking lot of the Casey’s store and I ran back inside and asked the employee for the ticket.
“[The cashier] was so flustered, she forgot to give it to me the first time. So, we finally got it on the right page.”
Kevin explained that he might never have realised he had left the ticket behind if it had not been for his family’s reputation as a notorious prankster.
He said: “My kids know that I tell some pretty good tales sometimes.
“So the oldest son who lives down in Des Moines here said that it’s not true until he sees a picture of the ticket.
“And so we took care of that and he was pretty excited, too.”
Frey, who cashed the money on February 20, revealed how he would like to spend the large sum of money.
He told Iowa Lottery officials that he and his wife, Marian plan to use some of the cash to move closer to their children in Des Moines when they retire.
And they also plan to share the cash with family members and charities.
Kevin said: “This is going to help a lot. This is exciting in that way, too.
“It will be fun to be able to share some of it with some of our family and some of the charities that we support and have supported for a long time.”
After winning the jackpot, a humble Kevin went on with his Sunday service as if nothing had happened.
The pastor said: “They told me I did a nice job on the sermon, so I said: ‘Well, I guess there was something at work in the middle of all that’.”
WHILE there is no way to predict the winning numbers in the lottery as each draw is completely random, here are some ways to increase your odds of wininng.
Firstly, select the right game.
The lottery could mean one of several games – each with different odds and jackpots.
Playing a game with smaller odds gives you a better chance of winning.
Secondly, buy more tickets. This sounds obvious, but there are several ways to do this.
Aside from simply splashing out more yourself, one way of increasing your odds of winning is to join a syndicate or pool.
This could be made up of friends, family, colleagues or even strangers – it doesn’t matter.
A syndicate or pool is a group of people who purchase a set number of tickets and agree to share any prizes equally, whoever wins.
Another way of winning the lottery? Check your ticket!
Unclaimed wins are more common than you think, due to people either losing their tickets, forgetting to check – or simply misreading the winning numbers.
Finally, pick random numbers. It is thought that tens of thousands of people choose combinations like 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6 each week. Don’t let that be you!
