Charles Coats bought a handful of Kansas Lottery instant-win scratch tickets yesterday with a definite goal in mind.
“I wanted to see if I was going to have a lucky new year,” said the 40-year-old Kansas City, Kan., resident.
Coats soon found out that 2015 was indeed going to be an extremely lucky year for him. When he played one of his tickets, a $2 Double Bonus Crossword, he found a $20,000 top prize.
While winning that kind of money is pretty amazing, it’s even more amazing that Coats’ sister, Laticia Raine of Shawnee, won $75,000 about two months ago playing one of the Kansas Lottery’s $10 It’s All Cash tickets.
“I can’t believe it. That’s just plain weird,” Coats told Lottery officials. “And I was at my other sister’s house when I scratched my ticket, which is pretty strange, too.”
Coats said after double and triple checking it, Coats signed the back of his lucky ticket and stashed it in his safe until he was able to claim it today at Lottery headquarters in Topeka.
Coats, who is the father of a 10-year-old son Wyatt, plans to use his prize money to get out of debt. “After this, I won’t owe anything except my home mortgage,” he said.
The ticket was purchased at QuikTrip 242, located at 9530 Lackman Road in Lenexa. There are still 13 top prizes of $20,000 remaining in Double Bonus Crossword (Game 588), plus hundreds of thousands of other cash prizes. For more information visit www.kslottery.com.