Here are a few of the saddest stories involving lottery winners!
9 - Beverlie Seltzer
What would you do if you discovered an unsold winning lottery ticket that was worth $4 million
dollars?
We’re not sure if this story is sad, smart, wrong, or a combination of all three!
But this was the situation that happened to Beverlie Seltzer.
And she chose to buy the winning lottery ticket that was just laying around at her workplace.
But was she ever the rightful owner?
It all started back in March of 2019 when Beverlie was working as a cashier at Acme,
a grocery store.
A customer had walked in and bought $22 dollars worth of lottery tickets.
Beverlie printed out the tickets with a few numbers on each of the tickets, BUT the customer
wanted each set of numbers printed on its own ticket.
So he gave back the tickets, and she did what he asked.
She set aside the now unsold tickets.
Fast forward a few hours later, and Seltzer realized that one of the tickets the man didn’t
want was a $4.1 million dollar winning ticket!
So she went back to Acme and bought the winning ticket.
She rang up the sale by selling it to herself for 10 bucks!
She brought the ticket to the lottery office and they certified the ticket as a legitimate
winning ticket.
They then started the entire process for her just like any other lottery ticket winner.
But everyone at Acme, including the corporate office, found out how everything happened
because of the review of the security footage.
Corporate lawyers for Acme showed up and claimed that the corporation owns all unsold tickets!
They also said that she couldn’t be the owner of the ticket herself because of another
rule.
Shehad rang up the sale herself instead of having another employee do it.
That was a direct violation of company policy.
The ticket was held in escrow ever since ACME filed a lawsuit.
And in December of 2020, the courts ruled in favor of Acme, not Beverlie!
Apparently, the judge’s ruling depended on how Acme treated ALL tickets sold by mistake
and returned.
Acme has to pay the lottery commission for every mistake ticket.
But they can also keep the winnings from any of those tickets that pays off.
And this was apparently something Acme had been doing with all its losing tickets, and
that’s why the judge ruled in favor of Acme!
8 - Jim Hayes
The first time Hayes ever robbed a bank, he was 55.
Most bank robbers start way earlier in their life.
But Jim Hayes wasn’t exactly the typical bank robber.
He’s a bank robber who’s won millions of dollars in the lottery!
Nearly 20 years before his bank robbing spree, Jim Hayes had won millions in the lottery.
But on the day he was busted, Hayes was living in a garage with nothing to his name.
Hayes said that having money gave him money to live out his wildest dreams.
But he also claimed that he caught the lottery curse.
Just what exactly happened?
Hayes had a hard life growing up in California.
He grew up with his grandmother after his mom wasn’t deemed fit to raise him.
He never knew his dad.
He grew up with minimal education, and he ended up taking on random jobs all his life.
But at the age of 35, Lady Luck blessed Hayes, at least financially.
He won 19 million dollars in California’s SuperLotto jackpot back in 1998.
He had been working the graveyard shift as a security guard at that time, and he quickly
quit his job.
Hayes took home $13.7 million after taxes.
He was smart enough to choose the annuity, and there were supposed to be 20 annual payments
of $684,000 dollars.
But even taking the annuity couldn’t protect him from his destructive habits.
Predictably, he spent his money like it was going to last forever.
He bought lambos and porsches.
He bought million-dollar oceanfront condos.
He went on expensive vacations such as Vegas to gamble money away.
This was after him telling the press the exact quote of “I’m not going to blow the money.”
But that’s exactly what happened.
Life caught up with Hayes fast.
He had back pain from three herniated discs and he started getting into pills.
He got divorced, and his ex-wife was entitled to half the payments.
Alimony, bad business decisions, and just his overall spending had creditors coming
for his pending checks.
Soon, the California Lottery began withholding his payouts! Hayes eventually filed for bankruptcy
in 2007, just 9 years after winning the lottery.
Fast forward 10 years and by 2017, he was basically homeless.
And that’s when Hayes turned to robbing banks!
On his very first bank robbery, Hayes walked right inside and handed the teller a note
demanding cash.
She handed it right over and Hayes ran out, but not before saying, “Sorry, family emergency”.
He was in and out of the bank into his car with thirty three hundred dollars cash in
less than three minutes.
Over a period of five months in 2017, Hayes hit TEN more banks in the Los Angeles and
Santa Barbara areas!
He was called the “PT Cruiser Bandit” by local media.
That’s because he bought a champagne-colored PT Cruiser specifically to use as his getaway
car!
Being a bank robber was tough work.
He stole only roughly $40,000 dollars before FBI agents caught up with him.
Taking on that type of risk for only a few thousand dollars each time was something unthinkable
to Hayes.
It was chump change for him not that long ago.
Hayes was convicted and sentenced to 3 years prison in June of 2018.
7 - Martyn and Kay Tott
Back in March 2001, the Totts were a young couple who were on top of the world.
They had just won a 3 million pound jackpot!
Except there was a little problem.
They didn’t have the ticket.
They had lost it.
And they only had hours to claim it.
The Totts were regular lottery players, and they always played the same numbers every
single time.
It was a combination of personal details, such as their birthdays, their ages when they
first met, and the day they got engaged.
BUT the one time they won, they forgot to check the numbers.
It wasn’t until they watched their local news months later.
The reporter announced that someone in their area held an unclaimed Lottery ticket.
The jackpot winner only had hours to claim their prize before the 180-day limit on claims
expired.
That’s when they saw their winning numbers come up on the screen!
But where did they put the ticket?!
They looked everywhere for the ticket.
And they never found it.
They decided to call lottery officials with their story.
The lottery company’s security chief, Martin Challis, told the Totts he was sure that they
were the rightful ticket holders on day 1 of their investigation.
But there was another rule.
There’s a 30-day time limit on reporting lost tickets.
Lottery officials knew that their story was genuine, but made them wait almost 7 agonizing
weeks to make their official ruling.
No payout.
The time that the Totts went through before the ruling was already stressful enough.
But after hearing the verdict, they were devastated.
Apparently, the lottery officials were actually on the Tott’s side.
They really wanted to give them the money.
But they didn’t want to open up any can of worms and set any new precedents.
They had to abide by its rules and not have any gray areas whatsoever.
The reason it took so long to let the Totts know the verdict was because they had referred
the case to its legal advisers to see if they could FIND a way to pay up.
When lawyers couldn’t find a way, the case was referred to the National Lottery Commission
to see if it had any extra discretion to authorise payment.
But those officials also decided that they couldn’t override their own 30-day rule.
For what it’s worth, lottery officials offered free professional counselling to the Totts
throughout the decision making period.
They declined.
6 - David and Angela Dawes
This is a couple who won a EuroMillions jackpot back in 2011.
But because they’re famous lottery winners, they were most likely targeted!
Thieves came into their new luxury mansion and stole their things, all while they were
tied up.
David and Angela Dawes are originally from Wisbech, Cambridgeshire.
They became Britain's seventh biggest lottery winners ever at the time after winning £101
million pounds.
One of the first things they did was buy a £4 and a half million pound place in West
London.
Six years later, the Dawes moved on to East Sussex, where they settled down in the former
mansion of British Singer Tom Jones.
And that’s where the robbery took place in April of 2020!
So why did they become targets?
Well, they’re famous lottery winners.
AND they moved into a famous house!
Definitely NOT a good combination.
The robbers made off with approximately £20,000 pounds in cash.
They stole some jewellery, and they were able to steal their Range Rover too!
But that was found later abandoned and burned, most likely to cover the evidence.
After they got robbed, the Dawes installed state of the art surveillance cameras on their
property.
It goes without saying that they should have already had it installed in the first place.
Three men WERE arrested following the robbery.
But they were released without getting charged since there was a lack of evidence connecting
them to anything.
5 - Isaac Carson Jr.
This is easily the most tragic story.
Isaac was a barber with 2 kids and an aspiring singer when he won the lottery for 50 grand
back in 2018.
However, after his win, things quickly went south in a situation where he lost his life.
His own cousin, Michael Ward Jr, was accused of setting him up to rob him of his money!
The situation took place in the parking lot of a bar in Cleveland in June 2018.
Ward and two other people were meeting Carson to buy some, let's call it, leafy greens.
Surveillance footage captured every moment of the meeting.
That night, Ward was seen getting out of his car into the front seat of Carson's minivan.
Following the transaction, a second person from Ward's car joined them in the back seat
of the van.
And that’s when everything went south.
Apparently, the guy with Ward jumped into Carson’s minivan.
He threw zip ties at Carson and expected Ward to tie Carson’s wrists together.
But Ward refused and threw the zip ties back.
This is the version of the story Ward told to the jury.
According to Ward, both he and Carson fought back and a struggle happened.
The man pulled out a gun, but despite Carson and Ward's attempts to get control of it,
it went off and Carson was hit in the back.
But this is where the story gets strange.
The second person who had gotten in immediately ran out of the van and ran back to Ward’s
car.
Ward got out of the minivan too.
And that’s when the unidentified person ran back to Carson's minivan to go after him
again.
All three suspects, including Ward, drove off and left Carson behind at the parking
lot.
Somehow, Ward was the only person charged.
Cleveland police detectives and prosecutors pointed the finger at him because they knew
that Ward had known of Carson's $50,000 dollar lottery win.
However, Ward defended himself by explaining that he was a person in the wrong place at
the wrong time and that he had no idea about what was gonna happen.
He simply claimed that he didn’t know the 2 guys with him were going to do that.
We’re just wondering who those 2 guys are, and WHY were they even there in the first
place.
After what took place, why did Ward leave with the guys, and why were they never identified?
The evidence presented by prosecutors wasn’t enough to convict Ward.
Jurors deliberated and acquitted Ward of all counts that were against him in October of
2020.
However, Carson’s immediate family to this day still believe it was a set up.
Investigators never found the gun used and no witnesses ever came forward to talk.
4 - Richard Zelasko
This is the story of how Richard Zelasko had to share a big lottery win.
With his ex-wife!
Richard won the $80 million dollar Mega Millions jackpot back in July 2013.
After taxes and deductions, the winnings amounted to roughly $38.8 million dollars.
His ex-wife, Mary Beth, was awarded around $15 million dollars.
He and Mary Beth had filed for divorce in late 2011, after having been separated since
2009.
They were married in 2004 and have three kids together.
It seems like an open and shut case, but it’s not.
They had already started the divorce process when he bought the ticket, so anything moving
forward doesn’t have to be split right?
Not in Michigan at least.
Michigan courts say a marriage isn’t over until it’s officially over.
An arbitrator ruled back in June of 2019 that the ticket was part of the couple’s marital
assets.
He argued that “marital property includes all property acquired from the date of marriage
until the date of entry of the divorce decree”.
That included anything acquired during a separation.
The court also pointed out that Richard had bought lottery tickets all throughout their
marriage and that those losses throughout the marriage were incurred together.
So any winnings should be shared jointly.
The court also argued that even though Richard spent $1 to buy the winning ticket, it was
most likely marital money.
So therefore, the lottery ticket was a joint investment.
Should any assets that’s acquired after the start of divorce proceedings be split
up?
3 - Sue Burgess
Here’s the good news: this actually isn’t a story with a sad ending.
But we included it because we wanted to show how easily it could have been the other way
around!
Florida woman Sue Burgess was forced to forfeit her lottery prize after USPS lost her winning
ticket in the mail!
At first.
Sue had won $1,000 bucks in Florida’s Second Chance Lottery game.
She told the press that winning felt like a million bucks, because she really needed
the money.
But there was a little problem for Sue.
She couldn’t claim her winnings at any of the local lottery offices.
They were all closed to the public because of the pandemic.
So she followed the state lottery’s instructions down to the T and went to the post office
to send in her ticket via certified mail.
However, the ticket never made it to the lottery office in the one-week time frame required
to claim the money.
Lottery officials claimed that since they never got the ticket, she couldn’t get the
money.
Sue’s initial prize money went to an alternate winner.
Sue’s other option was that she could have left her ticket in a dropbox at a local lottery
office.
But she felt that certified mail was the safer and more efficient option.
Obviously, THAT was the wrong choice.
Six weeks later, the winning ticket was still missing.
USPS apologized to Sue and worked with Florida lottery officials to help her cash out her
prize.
The Florida Lottery at first had said that they weren’t responsible for mistakes made
by USPS.
But, they were willing to make an exception for Burgess and pay out her prize if it ever
showed up with a postmark date before the original deadline.
Luckily for Sue, lottery officials conducted additional investigations because she contacted
local news with her story after USPS couldn’t find the ticket at first.
The State Lottery figured out that the ticket was indeed with the USPS!
Sue was lucky that the ticket was actually found by the post office.
Her mistake was going with them in the first place!
2 - Michael Dawes
Remember David and Angela from earlier?
Well, that robbery was just their latest problem.
Back in 2017, they had to deal with a problem with someone that was close to them.
David’s son!
They were forced to go to court when David’s son, Michael Dawes, sued.
Michael claimed that his dad was quote “ungenerous in spirit'' after he had cut him out of the
will.
But David had already given his son a lot of money.
And Michael took that money and burned through £1.6 million pounds in just two years!
According to his stepmom, Michael supposedly burned through the first £1.2 million in
just weeks!
David had given Michael the money and expected it to “last for life”.
But of course, that didn’t happen.
He kept going back to his dad for more money.
David actually did give him more money, but not without any tension.
For him, the last straw was when Michael showed up to his stepmom’s birthday party without
a gift for her.
She got tired of it too.
She hilariously gave Michael the advice to stop dining at the Ritz and going to McDonald's
instead!
The judge was probably tired of it too.
He ruled that David didn’t need to keep bailing out Michael, especially since he had
already given him money.
The judge felt that Michael was just entitled.
He concluded that Michael and his partner just felt that they could go back to David
for more money whenever they wanted.
Michael eventually demanded £5 million pounds from his dad and of course, took him to court.
Michael and his boyfriend were spending anywhere from around £20,000 to £30,000 pounds a
month.
They had around a £1,000 pound weekly grocery bill, something the judge called an "astonishing"
level of expenditure.
Michael argued to the judge that he and his boyfriend had been told by David that the
money would keep coming in.
And that’s why his boyfriend James quit his position as a lieutenant in the Royal
Navy, essentially giving up his military career!
He said that the money from his dad and stepmom had helped him with his mortgage, to buy a
BMW and also to help out his own friends and his boyfriend’s family.
Obviously, this became a he said she said situation.
But really, doesn’t his dad always reserve the right to do whatever he wants even if
DID say that to him?
Do you think Michael is entitled?
1 - Sherif Girgis
Sherif Girgis was just 23 when he won a jackpot of $30 million Australian Dollars back in
2007.
Unfortunately for Girgis, he lost it all.
BUT, it wasn’t in the typical way of spending.
And, there is a silver lining here for Girgis.
When he first won the lottery, he took on the financial advice of a prominent real estate
agent in the area named Russell Poliwaka.
He advised Girgis and got him to invest in a bar.
Girgis spent more than $1.3 million dollars on renovations.
But the bar was a losing proposition.
It lost a million dollars over a three-year period!
Poliwaka also convinced him to buy a luxury catamaran called Moonlight Express and run
a charter business.
This was a money losing venture as well.
He also got Girgis to buy a nightclub named Crush.
This was a disaster too.
Girgis also bought land with waterfront views because Poliwaka convinced him to.
But the land was grossly overpriced when Girgis bought it.
Poliwaka was supposed to be a pro at the very least in real estate, but clearly he wasn’t.
Eventually, Girgis realized his mistake in picking a financial adviser and overall business
partner.
So Girgis launched legal action in 2014 against Poliwka, the person he trusted with managing
his money for some reason.
Finally in 2019, after a lengthy court battle that took over 5 years years, Australian court
ruled that Poliwaka owed Girgis a little more than 2 million dollars!
The long story short is that the courts thought Poliwka’s representation was both misleading
and deceptive.
And the lesson here is that choosing someone to take care of money is extremely important.
Hire a financial professional, and NOT a real estate professional!
Here’s what’s next!