LINCOLN, Neb. — Rod Jauken of Funk is the fifth winner of a 2021 Ford F-150 XLT 4×4 SuperCrew Flex Fuel truck in the 26th edition of the Nebraska Lottery’s $2 Truck$ & Buck$ Scratch game.
Jauken purchased his winning Truck$ & Buck$ ticket at Pump & Pantry #23 at 916 Fourth Street in Holdrege.
Nebraska Lottery officials presented Jauken with his truck on Monday, May 24 at Pump & Pantry. Jauken said his winning ticket was one of the first he purchased this year.
He’d been heading out to Hastings to pick up a load of fertilizer when he heard about the most recent Truck$ & Buck$ truck winner in Columbus and decided to buy a few before heading out to a wedding with some friends on May 15.
He scratched off the ticket, checked it to make sure he’d actually won and had his friends turn around so he could take the ticket home to put it in a safe place.
“I put it in my freezer,” Jauken said. “Because I figured if anything happened, like a fire or anything, it would still be there.”
Dozens of friends, family and well-wishers from Holdrege and the surrounding area showed up at Monday’s event to congratulate Jauken. When they’d ask him what his secret was, Jauken said, “It’s dumb luck, that’s all I can tell you.”
Jauken’s current truck is nearly 20 years old and has over 200,000 miles on it, he said, so this win came at a perfect time.
“I’ve been looking for a pickup and now I have one,” he said. “Honest to gosh, it’s a blessing, I’m telling you.”
