What would you do if you won the lottery? Make sure that you would sensibly spend your lottery winnings.
Another list of stupid lottery winners. This list had been created by Listopedia – YouTube. (Source)
Let’s have a closer look at 10 stories of lucky lottery winners. Although not very sensible lottery winners.
10 Stupid Lottery Winners – Part 2
Number 10: Curtis Sharp [00:15]
Curtis Sharp of Newark, New Jersey won $5 million in 1982. He isn’t a stupid human being by any stretch of the imagination, but he certainly didn’t act like a smart one. He was air conditioning technician when he won his lottery millions. He did everything you shouldn’t do after winning big fortune. Invest in bad schemes. Give away tons of money without looking. Squandering more of it on luxury items. Forgot that the Internal Revenue Service is not your friend. After losing all the money, poor Mr. Sharp ended up finding God and becoming a minister at his church. Thank goodness, although he’d won a fortune that could have set him up for life, he was smart enough not to quit his job. So he does have social security and a full pension to fall back on. But he does say today that if he had to do it all over again, he’d take it much slower. Also, he’d hire a good financial advisor and a good lawyer. At least that’s what he recommends to younger lottery winners now.
Number 9: Marie Holmes [01:06]
Single mother of four, Marie Holmes, is a much too forgiving person, if you want to put it nicely. She was holding down four part-time jobs to make ends meet. In February 2015, this lady won the $188 million Powerball jackpot in her home state of North Carolina. What was one of the first thing she did when she got the $88 million check after taxes? She posted $3 million to bail her boyfriend and father of her youngest child, career criminal. Lamar HotSauce McDow was in jail for a heroin and weapons charge.
A few months later, HotSauce was in hot water again. He needed to be bailed out on another charge involving weapons. This time, bail was doubled, so $6 million. But the wholesome and sweet boyfriend wasn’t done yet. He landed in jail again on street racing charges. Miss Holmes was needed to post $12 million bail. Usually, bail money isn’t lost. It comes back to the person, when the perpetrator does what he’s supposed to do. But with HotSauce, Marie Holmes is almost guaranteed to lose all her money before the third anniversary of her lottery win.
Number 8: Christina Goodenow [02:12]
I don’t know if I’d call Christina Goodenow stupid, but she certainly has a pair of balls. The 38-year-old Southern Oregon woman used her deceased mother in law’s credit card to make $12000 worth of purchases. The purchases included a scratch lottery ticket that won $1 million. Quickly, Goodenow showed up at the Oregon lottery offices to collect the first of 20 yearly checks of $32000. Then, she was arrested on identity theft, forgery, fraud and a few other charges. Nobody ever got the 32000 dollars. Goodenow appealed the court decision as excessive punishment. Apparently, since the ticket was bought illegally, according to Oregon law, the Medford Police Department will be awarded the winnings. In Oregon, police agencies can collect money gained through criminal activity.
Number 7: Jason Canterbury [03:00]
When he was 19 years old, Jason Canterbury became the youngest lottery jackpot winner in South African history. He won 6.7 million South African Rand, which today would be worth about $1 million. Unfortunately, Jason used his money to basically try and create a drug Empire. He ended up getting himself arrested for the murder of an associate over a drug money disagreement. If that wasn’t enough, he also tried to dispose of the body himself, which is never a good idea. He did try to appeal his 28-year prison sentence back in 2011, but was not met with much love from the judge.
Number 6: Marva Wilson [03:37]
Would it be mean to say that Marva Wilson is dumb? We certainly can’t call her the sharpest knife in the drawer. She won $2 million in the Missouri lottery that is in the United States, where lottery winnings are heavily taxed. Naive Marva gave her friend, Freya Pearson, unrestricted access to her bank account. Pearson used the money to travel, gamble, buy cars and apartment, squandering some $640,000. She left the lottery winner completely broke.
Number 5: Victoria Zell [04:07]
In 2002, Victoria Zell showed up at a press conference with her then estranged husband, who had won the Powerball jackpot. He said that people thought they were getting a divorce, they’d be sharing the winnings half and half. Three years later, Victoria was in court being convicted of driving dangerously and causing the death of 30-year-old Joshua Schmidt, and serious spine injuries of the 31-year-old Amity Dimock. Since her lottery wins, Ella’s just throw caution to the wind. She turned her life into a living chaos. Proof that money doesn’t always solve everything. Also, being an idiot certainly doesn’t help either.
Number 4: Charles Riddle [04:44]
Charles Riddle won $1 million in the lottery in 1975. That was a huge amount of money back then. It’s still much today. He didn’t realize that he was set for life. Instead, he divorced his wife and became a cocaine dealer. Bad choice, Charlie! The many high profile lawsuits that he had to fight didn’t help either. Eight years later, his life derailed completely. He ended up in court on Drug Abuse charges. Two years after that, he was sentenced to three years in a federal prison for dealing cocaine.
Number 3: Denise Rossi [05:16]
California resident, Denise Rossi, won over $1 million in the lottery when a group of employees from her job got the winning numbers. Denise thought this would be a great time to end her apparently perfect 25-year marriage. So, she didn’t tell her husband that she was a brand new millionaire, just that she wanted to divorce. She almost got away with it. But when her lie was discovered, a judge granted the full amount of her winnings to her ex-husband. So there, another clear example of lying being a bad thing.
Number 2: Jay Sommers [05:47]
J. Sommers was just 20 years old when he split a $28 million jackpot with five people in 1988. He got his first annual payment of $290 thousand dollars. He went out and bought not one but five new cars. He wasted all that money from the check in two and a half months. What 20-year-old who wins that kind of money is sensible with such a big winnings? Things didn’t get much better, when his friends persuaded him to swap his annual checks for a discounted lump sum payment.
One morning Jay woke up and the money was gone. It had just vanished. Thanks to a friend’s bad investment and shady deals. Now single and living near Detroit. Sommers works at construction. ’I’m still bitter, and I’ll be bitter the rest of my life,’ he says. ’I think I’d be further along the day if I had never won.’ Yeah, Jay! That’s it. Blame it on everybody else but yourself, dude.
Number 1: Ronnie Music Jr. [06:41]
If you’re going to win $3 million in the lottery at the age of 45, it might be a great idea to start that business, which you always dream to have. Being your own boss, hiring people you like and trust, working on your own schedule and at your own rhythm. Not such a great idea for Ronnie. Instead he invested his money in a drug ring. That’s exactly what Ronnie Music Jr. did. Now he’s pleading guilty to drug trafficking and firearm charges. Currently, he is waiting to find out, exactly how many decades he’ll spend in a federal prison.
