Now that the Powerball has soared to the record height of $1.3 billion, you’re probably salivating over your ticket in the hopes of becoming ridiculously and obnoxiously wealthy. IF you’re the lucky winner, try not to walk in these poor unfortunate souls’ footsteps. They won the lottery, and then watched their millions go up in flames… literally, in some cases.
Lara and Robert Griffith won $2.76 million and purchased a million-dollar mansion and a porsche. 6 years after their win, their marriage fell apart after Lara found emails between Robert and another woman. Robert drove away in the Porsche, the house was destroyed by a freak fire, and all of their fortune was gone. Robert now lives with his parents.
William ‘Bud’ Post was a shotgun-toting rough rider of Erie, Pennsylvania who won $16.2 million in 1988. After that, he acquired a long list of problems, such as a brother who tried to hire a hitman to kill him and his 6th wife, a landlady who somehow forced her way into 1/3 of his winnings, and an assault charge. Apparently he fired a shotgun at a man who was trying to collect a debt from him.
Strapped for cash, Post auctioned off the rights to his remaining lotto checks in 1996. He was in the clear after paying off his lenders, until he bought 2 homes, a truck, a luxury camper, computers and a $260,000 sailboat. He said, “I was much happier when I was broke.” He died in 2006, and was living on a $450-per-month disability check.
Karma was served up fresh in this one. Former Waffle House waitress Tonda Lynn Dickerson won $10 million after receiving a ticket from one of her regular customers. Apparently, she and the other employees (who also received tickets from the regular) made a verbal agreement to split the winnings if anyone hit jackpot. Dickerson did not follow through with that promise, and put the money in a corporation.
She gave her family 51% of the stock which in turn qualified her for gift tax, and had to give $1,119,347 to the tax man.
Denise Rossi won $1.3 million in the California lotto, and left her husband Thomas of 26 years without telling him about the money. She almost got away with it, until a letter revealing the truth ended up at Thomas’s new place. When he sued her for the money, the judge awarded the entire amount to him because her failure to tell him was considered fraud.
Construction worker Americo Lopes won a Mega Millions jackpot and scored $17,433,966 in 2009. What he didn’t reveal was that he had actually purchased the ticket with a combination of his and his co-workers’ money.
After he won, he quit his job and told everyone that he was leaving because he needed foot surgery. Obviously, after a quick Google search his friends found out the truth and successfully sued him for their share.
Sharon Tirabassi was a single mother on welfare before she hit it big and won $7,425,492.15 in the Canadian lottery. She got a little too happy and made lavish purchases including a mansion and fancy cars, gave money to family and friends, and 9 years later she’s back to working part-time and riding the bus. Luckily, she put money in trusts for her 6 children before things went south, and they can claim the money when they turn 26.
Janite Lee got in trouble after being too charitable. The wigmaker immigrated from South Korea to St. Louis and won $18 million upon her arrival in 1993. She tried to better her community by spending millions on the construction of a church and building a reading room at Washington University.
She also was a heavy donor for the Democratic National Committee, ranking right beneath Boeing on their list of top “soft money” donors. A lot of Lee’s investments tanked, and she also spent hundreds of thousands of dollars on gambling. She was bankrupt by 1997.
Imagine winning the lottery twice. TWICE. Evelyn Adams won in 1984 AND 1985, getting a total of $5.4 million. What did she do with it? Gambled it away in Atlantic City, of course. She now lives in a trailer park. She told reporters, “Winning the lottery isn’t always what it’s cracked up to be.”
When Michael Carroll won $15 million in 2002, he was seduced by the life of hookers, cocaine, parties and cars. At one point he was buying up to 4 prostitutes a day.In 5 years he was back to where he started and was later caught stealing a sandwich and drink that were worth $17. In 2010 he was asking for his job as a garbageman back. He said, “I only started to think about three things — drugs, sex and gold. The dealer who introduced me to crack has more of my lotto money than I do.”
In the UK, you can win the lottery at 16… not that it’s a good idea. In 2003, Callie Rogers won $3 million and bought 4 houses, several new cars and 2 boob jobs. She also loved to spend money on her boyfriends; she even bought one guy a car and paid him to be her chauffer because she was too young to drive. To top it all off, she got hooked on cocaine as well. Now she’s worth around $3,000 and works as a maid.
So the moral of the story is this: Be smart with your money, and if you hit the Powerball, don’t follow it up with an 8-ball.
