Lottery Winner’s Craziest Stories
Bet you’ve had a dream of winning the lottery at least once in your life. But have you heard of these insane stories about previous winners? It might make you question your dream…
Each week lottery games from around the world create new millionaires overnight. While most quietly collect their winnings and head for the nearest Porsche dealership, others like to do things in a more spectacular fashion. Over the years there have been some incredible winner stories, and we’ve picked the five best for you!
Mistaken Lottery Winner
What’s the first thing you do when you think you’ve won the lottery? We’re reliably informed that standard procedure is to check the ticket numerous times, then dance around the room.
It’s a tried and tested formula, and it stops people from making the mistake this woman did… Instead of double-checking the ticket, calling in to verify her win or doing anything sensible, she grabbed her purse and headed for the shops.
Embarking on a four-week spending binge, she racked up a £3,000 credit card bill on clothes, perfumes, ornaments and more. At this point, following a deafening silence from the lottery authorities her husband (finally) suggested they double check the ticket, and surprise surprise it wasn’t a winner…
At this point, it would have been best to acknowledge her mistake, find the receipts and lug everything back to the shop. Did she do that? Is this a list of sensible lottery winners?
Claiming her bag had been stolen and her cards used fraudulently, the police got involved and pointed out to her that CCTV clearly showed her purchasing the items.
She was handed a 4-month suspended sentence and given a strict repayment plan by a court judge.
“I Just Won $250,000. I’m Not Joking!”
This next tale is as much heartwarming as it is crazy and comes from the land down under.
In 1997 Billy Morgan was a truck driver living in a trailer park in Australia. During one of his road trips his vehicle was involved in a bad accident, although not seriously injured Morgan was rushed to the hospital, where things took a turn for the worst.
Reacting badly to some medication, Morgan had a massive heart attack and was clinically dead for 14 minutes, before slipping into a 12-day coma. In that time his family was advised that he would likely have lost many of his cognitive functions and turning off life support would be the best course of action.
Luckily for Billy, and indeed for this article, he woke up, fit as a fiddle no less. He changed career, got engaged and won a car worth £17,000 on a scratchcard. This caught the attention of the local media, not because winning a car is particularly notable, but because a year ago he was medically dead.
As part of a cheesy local news segment, Billy was handed a scratchcard, the idea being he relived his winning moment and exclaimed something along the lines of “Crikey, I’ve won a car.”
It’s at this point, cameras rolling, that Morgan goes off script, instead, he exclaims “I just won $250,000. I’m not joking!” And he wasn’t, he’d picked up another winning scratchcard.
Double Trouble: Lottery and Lightening
It’s almost impossible to read an article about the lottery without being reminded that you are more likely to be hit by lightning than scooping the jackpot. But what are the odds of winning the lottery AND being hit by lightning? The answer, 1.26 trillion to one. Odds that one Nova Scotia resident beat in 2015.
Peter McCathie was 14 when a bolt of lightning struck him as he was mooring a boat. Unaware of the odds against him, Peter and his co-worker Diana Miller started playing the lottery, and a year later they won the jackpot.
Here are some things that are more likely than winning the lottery and being hit by lightning:
- Being killed by a hot tap (1:5,000,000)
- Becoming president of the United States (1:5,693,092).
- Becoming a saint (1:20,000,00)
- Being killed by an asteroid (1:74,817,414)
That’s not all. Peter’s daughter was also hit by lightning while working as a guide in the Canadian province of Manitoba. Unfortunately, we are unable to verify if she plays the lottery.
