An 80-year-old Albert Lea woman won $2,500 on Monday — in cold, hard cash.

Albert Lea Hy-Vee Store Director Al Weisert had the pleasure of counting out 25 $100 bills for Phyllis Hamborg of Frank Hall Drive.

He carried several balloons and produce manager Todd Brouwers carried a dozen roses. They stepped from an sport-utility vehicle and knocked on Hamborg’s door. She thought someone was just sending flowers, but when Weisert explained her name was drawn as part of the Holiday Brands for Grands contest, she smiled with glee.

“When I saw everybody getting out, I wondered, ‘What is going on? This is not my birthday’,” Hamborg said.

That would be next Tuesday, when she turns 81.

The Holiday Brands for Grands contest works kind of like a game show: Shoppers register at Hy-Vee grocery stores. Each week for 10 weeks the Hy-Vee headquarters in West Des Moines, Iowa, draws 10 stores out of the more than 220 that cover seven Midwestern states. Each of those 10 stores then get to draw a name of a customer.

The store director calls, figures out a good time, then goes to the person’s house. After the store director explains what is happening, the winning customer has 10 minutes to retrieve 25 items with labels associated with Hy-Vee, such as the Hy-Vee label itself or Midwest Country Fare. They win $100 for each of the items produced. Also, if they have the TV set tuned to the contest’s partner TV station for the region, they get to win another $100. The potential winnings is $2,600.

Hamborg had three TV sets that were off when she invited Weisert and Brouwers inside her home. None was tuned to channel 3 of the local cable-TV system, which viewers know is KIMT in Mason City, Iowa.

It was then Weisert looked at his watch, and Hamborg had 10 minutes to find 25 items with the right labels. The third TV set was in her basement, so she went straight to her basement cupboards. She produced 23 items in the basement in two minutes, and she had more than enough to cross the threshold in her kitchen.

Then Weisert counted the cash and handed it to her.

Hamborg said she was unsure how she would spend the money.

“You don’t expect something like that,” she said.