CONTRIBUTED PHOTO — Steve Snyder is pictured with his $250,000 lottery prize in the Lucky 7 Bonus scratch game.

CLIVE — A Marshalltown man stopped after work to grab a snack and a lottery ticket and ended up winning a $250,000 lottery prize.

Stephen “Steve” Snyder, 46, purchased his “Lucky 7 Bonus” scratch ticket at Casey’s, 2601 SE Creekview Drive in Ankeny and won the second top prize of $250,000 out of 20 available in the game.

He was still feeling overwhelmed when he claimed his prize Monday at lottery headquarters in Clive.

Snyder recalls the moment he played his ticket.

“Started going down the line on the play section. And I get down to number 14, scratch the prize and basically was in shock, like I am now,” said Snyder, who works at PDI in Ankeny. “I like, wipe my eyes, like, ‘Am I seeing everything?’ I work third shift, so it’s kind of late, 3 a.m.”

Snyder went back inside the Casey’s to have his ticket verified and then made plans to claim his prize.

“I’ll probably freak out on the way home, now that I have the check,” he said.

Snyder does have some thoughts on how he’ll use his winnings.

“I’m going to try and have it be a good thing. Obviously I’m going to do something stupid, I’ll be honest. Probably get a nicer car or something, set a limit,” he said. “It’ll be a nice little safety umbrella for me.

“You always think it would be neat (to win) and then it happens. And then it’s like, ‘This is crazy.’ Like it actually, it did happen,” he said still stunned by the win. “Like, ‘WOW!’ It’s just dumb luck. It can happen.”