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Vandalia Woman Cooks Up $30,000

A trip to the store for some pickling spices paid off for a Vandalia cook. Betty Bontz, 67, said when she went to Hickman’s IGA in Vandalia on July 13 to buy the pickling ingredients, she also bought one $2 Missouri Lottery Scratchers ticket. "I usually buy one when I go to the grocery store," she said. When she scratched off the ticket in her truck, she at first thought she won $30 and "got her money back." Then she thought the ticket was worth $3,000. When she got in the store, she found out it was worth the game’s top prize of $30,000. "First of all, I haven’t had new carpet in 20 years, so I plan to get new carpet," said Bontz, a former restaurant owner who now cooks part time for the Vandalia Hotel Restaurant. "I’ll probably give some to the kids, and I’ll keep the rest back." "Deuces Wild," a $2 game, officially started Dec. 25, 2004.