What would you do if you won the lottery? Spend it on that vacation you've been dreaming of for years? Save it so you can buy your dream home? Invest it so you can make more money than you could ever dream of? Well, usually that's all winning the lottery ever is...just a dream. For one Waterloo woman that dream became a reality this week.

Tina Rodgers thought she won a tiny prize on her scratch off ticket, but she actually won $100,000.

How big of a difference do a few zeroes really make?

"At first I thought it was just $1,000, because I had contacts in and they were dry," Rodgers explained to Iowa Lottery officials.

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After the Waterloo resident bought her Jewel Game Book, she casually made her way back to her car to scratch the ticket.

"I'm looking like, 'How many zeroes is that?' So I had to put some drops in my eyes so I could look clearly and my breath was gone after that."

She was still freaking out when she made her way to Cedar Rapids where the regional lottery office is located. Rodgers bought her lucky ticket at Ray's Supermarket at 1975 Franklin Street right here in Waterloo.

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Rodgers plans to use $100,000 to pay off some of her debt, and to give back to her mom. That seems like a pretty reasonable way to spend some of your hard earned winnings!

"I didn't think it was real," she said. "I kept looking at this ticket. I watch this on TV, how (the) lottery changes people's lives, but I'm like, 'Nah, that doesn't happen here.'"

But it did happen here...right here in Iowa in the city of Waterloo.

 

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