Grand Island man wins $45,000 lottery truck

It all started with a thank-you from a daughter to her father.

"I bought him $100 worth of scratch tickets as a gift because he came over and helped me do some work at my house," Andrea Zuelow of Grand Island said of her dad, Darrell Penas. "He never takes my money, so I bought him the scratch tickets."

One of the scratch tickets came up a big winner -- netting Penas a 2008 Toyota Tundra 4-by-4 double-cab truck. It was the second top-prize winner in the Nebraska Lottery's $2 Truck$ & Buck$ Scratch Game.

Penas was presented the truck Thursday morning at Coffin's Corner in Grand Island, where Zuelow purchased the tickets.

Zuelow said she has never won anything big playing the lottery.

"My dad has won here and there, but nothing big like this," she said. "He does enough for everybody, and he deserves it."

Zuelow said her father loves the lottery and plays it every week.

"As a kid, we used to go to Council Bluffs when they didn't have the lottery here (in Nebraska), and we would buy tickets," he said.

Penas said his daughter dropped off the lottery tickets at his house on Sunday morning, although he didn't get to them until later.

"It was about 9:30 that night," he said. "I decided to start scratching my tickets. I decided to scratch two of the truck tickets. I thought it was going to be a loser, and I scratched the second one and it was another truck."

His daughter, Andrea, was the first person he called after realizing he had won the pickup truck, but he said she didn't quite believe him. He then called his sons, who all came over, and it was then it began to sink in for Penas that he actually did win the truck.

The 12th edition of the Nebraska Lottery's Truck$ & Buck$ Scratch Game features the Toyota Tundra as its top prize.

Players have the opportunity to win one of three Toyota Tundras as well as $492,200 in total cash prizes.

The truck is valued at $45,000, which includes $750 for costs associated with ownership and state and federal withholding paid by the Nebraska Lottery of $2,250 and $11,250, respectively.

Frank Ricceri of Omaha won the first Toyota Tundra in the Truck$ & Buck$ Scratch Game and was presented his truck on July 16.

The odds of winning the top prize in the Truck$ & Buck$ are 1 in 160,000, while the overall odds of winning any prize are 1 in 3.66.

In all his years of playing the lottery, Penas said, the biggest prize he previously won was $500.

But the family is no stranger to winning big lottery prizes.

Penas' sister, Marlene Leece of Grand Island, won $100,000 on the lottery a few years back. Penas' wife's uncle, Jim Baasch, scratched off a ticket for a Chevy Silverado back in 1999 in Chapman. Penas said he ended up buying the truck from Baasch and one of his sons is still driving that truck.

Penas was worried about all the taxes he would pay for winning the truck. But lottery officials assured him that was all taken care of for him.

Penas, who is a master plumber, doesn't intend to use his new truck for his job.

"It's just going to be my run-around truck," he said. "It's a pretty nice birthday gift, too."

Thursday was not only Penas' birthday, but also the birthday of his daughter, Andrea, who bought him the ticket.

Misty Koperski, who manages Coffin's Corner, said it was exciting having someone win a big lottery prize at her convenience store.

"It has been kind of a dry spell (since) we sold a lottery ticket that won $50,000," Koperski said. "It's good for business."

More than $319 million has been raised for the Nebraska Lottery's beneficiary funds since the lottery began in 1993. All 93 counties in Nebraska have benefited from projects funded with Nebraska Lottery proceeds.