This Cedar Rapids store was the number #1 lottery retail store in the state in 2017. Cash 4 winner Will Tuley bought his Pick 4 tickets from this same store.

LOOKING BACK: In one of the more amazing lottery successes in recent times, a retired electronics technician from Cedar Rapids, USA won $200,000 in the Iowa Lottery's Pick 4 game.

But it was how Will Tuley played the game and the number of tickets he won that made it a strange tale.

Richard Dinan won $36,000 in January 2014, but had a long way to go to beat Will Tuley that month.

"In all the years I have worked at the lottery I don't recall anyone winning this many prizes totaling that amount in a Pick 4 drawing," Iowa Lottery spokesperson Mary Neubauer said.

Will Tuley actually won the game multiple times in the single drawing, which was why his prize was so large, reported The Gazette. This is how it was done.

He bought 14 tickets, with three plays per ticket.

Then he played different combinations of the same four numbers - 1, 9, 4, 3, for each of the plays.

Those four numbers were all winners, which means he won a total of 42 times.

Pick 4 players can spend different amounts to increase their odds of winning. For example, players can play 'straight' or 'box.' A straight ticket means the numbers must match the exact order they are drawn.

A more expensive ticket lets players match numbers in any order. There are also combinations of straight and box combinations to choose from.

Tuley purchased seven of the winning tickets from Hy-Vee, 20 Wilson Ave. SW and then went across the street to purchase the other seven at Hy-Vee Gas, 2300 Bowling St. SW.

At the time Tuley, 70, said his wife didn’t believe him when he told her he’d won.

“Her jaw dropped,” he said. “She said, ‘You’re kidding me.’”

He said he has a few ideas for how to spend his winnings but wants to keep them to himself for now. He said winning feels pretty good.

“It feels great, actually,” he said.

Tuley has won the Pick 4 game twice before. In July 2009, he won $24,000 in one drawing, and he won twice in 2010, with a total of $9,125 in prizes from two drawings.

SOURCE: The Gazette