There are people who win the lottery and keep it cool. They make wise decisions not to buy big villa´s and fast cars immediately, but to help out their families. Paying off their parents depths and saving up. They are determined to remain themselves.
Other people win the lottery and get instant dollar signs in their eyes. Buying designers bags, houses with humongous swimming pools, fast cars, dozens of clothes and a private jet. Spending it all and before they know it, it´s gone.
But lottery winners can do even worse than just spending all of the money on themselves right away. Here´s a list of lottery winners who all really deserve the title ´worst lottery winner´.
1. Lottery winners who hid the money from their spouses
Yep. Really. When Armin Ramdass won $600,000 he hide it from his wife. Ramdass did everything to prevent his wife from finding out about the publicized win. Trying to keep the television off and making excuses to disconnecting the phone. When his wife eventually found it, he ran away. Ran away like crazy. He left no trace, but his wife was left with a lot of bills that he didn´t pay.
Denise Rossi won $1.3 million in California and decided to hide it from her husband and divorce him immediately. He found out 1.5 year later by accident and took it, of course, to court. Karma, or the judge, decided that Rossi had to give every penny to her ex-man. The most funny part is that if she mentioned the money during the divorce she could probably keep it, because it was her winning ticket. Ouch.
2. Hiding $38 million from your friends
Americo Lopes won 38.5 million in a lottery with a pesky ticket where everyone at work has chipped in. Oops. What to do? Americo decided to skip the morals and keep the money to himself. He stopped working and lived the life of a rich man. Well, that doesn´t make you suspicious at all.. His co-workers found out and sued him. Lopes immediately realized he made a mistake. Uhu. So he shared the money with his friends from work and claimed that he had learned that friendship is more important than money. Right, Lopes, right.
3. Human trafficker
Last, but definitely not least, Patty Bigbee. Patty Bigbee was just an Florida resident, spending her remaining years in the warm, alligator-infested state. When she won $1 million with her lottery ticket Bigbee decided to buy everything she always wanted right away: a house, a car and cool stuff for family and friends.
Two years later Patty found herself with a lot of stuff but no more money in the bank. Now what? Patty didn´t want to go to her old lifestyle but had no more money to continue her present, luxury lifestyle. What to do next? Sell, your grandson to total stranger of course. Wait, what? No kidding, Bigbee sold her 8-week-old grandson for $30.000. The fact that her daughter, the mother of the child, was totally participating made it even worse. Thank god Bisbee also mothered a daughter with a functioning brain. The daughter – and sister of the child´s crazy mother – informed the authorities about their plans. Bigbee and her boyfriend were arrested before a transaction could take place.
Crazy people right? What would you do when you hit it big? Keep it to yourself or share it with the ones you love? Take a chance to find out and play the lotto. And when you win, just keep in mind what you just read, ok?
