Not-so-rude awakening

POST FALLS - Ryan Bartlett's parents panicked when he woke them up on Tuesday night.

"They thought I'd been in a car accident the way I came running into the house," the Post Falls man said.

But what Bartlett brought instead was great news.

The detailer at the Findlay auto dealerships had just won the $100,000 top prize of the Money Train lottery scratch game.

"I wanted them to look over the ticket and make sure I wasn't seeing things," Bartlett said. "It didn't seem like it was real. At first, I thought I'd only won $100 ... . I drove straight to my parents' house, and honestly, don't remember putting the truck into park."

Money Train started chugging as a lottery game on Feb. 19. Bartlett's win is one of two top prizes the game is offering. Once the second $100,000 prize is claimed, the game will end.

The odds of winning the top prize is 1 in 138,000.

Bartlett's win is $67,600 after taxes. He said he plans to have his 2006 Dodge Ram repaired, help family members pay credit card bills, save some for a rainy day and put some away for his 3-year-old son Wyatt's education.

Bartlett, who regularly plays scratch games, said his previous lucky high was $1,300 he won at a casino.

"I've always done pretty decent with the scratch tickets, so I've stuck to those," he said.

The winning number on his ticket, 26, is also his age.

Bartlett decided at the last second to buy a $10 Money Train ticket while at the Freeway Jifi Stop on Fourth Street in Coeur d'Alene on Tuesday night.

After chatting with friends and relatives about his win, Bartlett and his stepdad, Dan Buckley, loaded Wyatt into the truck and headed for Boise that night and claimed the prize on Wednesday morning.

"There's not a lot of traffic on the highway at 2 a.m.," he said. "We never thought that we would be in Boise to claim a big prize from the lottery."

The Jifi Stop will receive $10,000 for selling the ticket.