5 Crazy Things That Have Happened to Lottery Winners
Have you purchased your lotto ticket yet? 323 Million is the magic number up for grabs in tonight's drawing. The Mega Millions game costs you a buck, well $2 total if you're wanting to add the Megapleir option. We have all day dreamed about winning the lottery. But what happened to those folks who actually got lucky and won? The University of Kentucky, The University of Pittsburgh, and Vanderbilt University conducted a study and concluded that, lottery winners declare bankruptcy twice as much as the general population. If you're thinking, how on earth can that happen? Here are 5 Crazy things that have happened to "lucky" winners.
1. Not all families can handle the celebrity lifestyle. In the early 90's Alex Toth won $13 million. He was married and had 6 kids from previous relationships. Before he won the lottery his family would live off of $25 for a week. The Toth family started to live the celebrity lifestyle. Everything in their lives started to go awry, from killing beloved pets, to burning each others cars just to spite each other. The Toth family was convicted of fraudulent tax returns and they filed for bankruptcy, TWICE.
2. It get's way too lit being a lottery winner. A young man from Kansas won $75 Million and the first purchase he made was a ridiculous amount of marijuana and methamphetamine. This bright young man decided to head home and reload his butane lighter as he stood next to the gas stove. His home went up in flames, but he made it out with his free Kansas Lottery T-shirt still on.
3. Too kind for your own good. A South Korean immigrant won $18 Million. She spent a majority of her winnings by donating to charities. She did purchase a million dollar home- in payments and leased a car instead of paying it off. 12 years after winning the lottery she sold the rights to her future lottery winnings since she was 2.5 million in debt, and declared bankruptcy.
4.Getting used and abused. William Post had $3 to his name when he won $16.2 Million. His on again off again landlord/girlfriend demanded one-third of his winnings, not only did she get 33% of Post's winnings, she dumped him shortly after. Post's brother convinced him to buy businesses and expensive cars for him and their siblings. Post being the generous and non-confrontational type agreed and when he fulfilled his brothers request, his brother hired a hit-man to kill him.
5. Forgetting to end your public assistance after winning the lottery. Telling a judge that you "forgot" to end all of your public assistance programs isn't enough to let you off the hook. Amanda Clayton won a million dollars and ended up in court having to explain why she didn't stop her public assistance programs. Clearly she didn't bother to spend her winnings on a lawyer, she was sentenced to 5 years in prison.