Want To Know What Winning The Lottery Is Like?
This man in the yellow is assumed to have one-half of the Powerball jackpot. he bought the ticket in Arizona, but lives in Maryland. The store clerks claim the man had all the correct numbers. Watch his reaction when he finds out he won.
On GMA, they mentioned that he is thought to be in the military, hence the ticket being bought in AZ and him in MD.
ReplyDeleteI saw this on the news and I felt so happy for him!
ReplyDeleteThat guy is an idiot if he did win. Running around showing everyone his ticket. Especially in Upper Marlboro...he's lucky he didn't get stabbed and robbed.
ReplyDeleteHe can react however he wants, wherever he wants. I'm glad a regular person, not some millionaire retiree in Arizona, won. :) I smiled watching this about 10 times this morning!
ReplyDeleteHe looked to be a pretty big dude- I doubt anyone would mess with him.
ReplyDeleteKatiefox is right. Vultures are circling now. Hope he stays safe!
ReplyDeleteHe looks super grateful and if he is in the military then that's just awesome.
ReplyDeleteIMO this is what sucks about winning the lotto. You have this huge payout coming in, you're all over the news, and people you don't even know want to be your friend now. If I ever won, I wouldn't want my whole crappy town knowing about it.
His reaction is awesome!!! I wonder if he wants to be my friend:)
ReplyDeleteSo glad for him!!
That's pure joy, right there! Pure Joy! Awesome to see. Congratulations to both the winners :)
ReplyDeleteJinx on the awesome awesomeness, Roman! Happy Friday :)
ReplyDeleteOh my gosh that just made my day! I even have a few tears in my eyes from happiness for that man. His Joy is amazing!!!
ReplyDeleteRight back at ya dia!!! I hope you had an awesome birthday - I raised my glass to you on Thanksgiving:)
ReplyDeleteThank you! Glass raised back at cha *clink*
ReplyDeleteSo when are we playing kickball? ;)
ReplyDeleteThis video totally made my morning. Woo Hoo! Happiness is contagious too :)
Video gone. I want to win the lottery so freaking bad but if I did you had better believe the last thing I'd do is go on TV and announce it.
ReplyDeleteI wouldn't tell anyone and I'd wait till the last days to cash my ticket...
ReplyDeleteThat man is an idiot...
Good for him. I love that he bought the ticket in AZ but is living in MD. According to my cube neighbor who says she will win the lottery one day, he should have created a corporation and claimed the money anonymously. I imagine anyone who recognized him in that video bombarding him and he will never know a moment's peace again.
ReplyDeleteNever ask the store to check your numbers for you. There was a case in Texas where an old guy asked the convenience store employee to check his tickets, he was told that they weren't winners. The convenience store employee went to Austin, collected the cash and left the country. The old guy sued the state but the thief had a legitimate winning ticket when he arrived at lottery headquarters & was duly paid.
ReplyDelete@lazyday603 - That is messed up! I'm so glad to see that someone who appears to be working class (from the uniform) won. If he is military, that makes it all the more awesome!
ReplyDeleteI wish Dave Chappelle was still making his show, he'd have a field day with this.
ReplyDeleteWhile I would want to be anonymous - remember each state has laws about how much is revealed about lottery winners. In Florida, they have to publish the name and city of the winner. Would make it easy enough to find someone.
ReplyDelete@lazyday, I saw a Dateline special on those situations (hosted by none other than Chris Hanson, whom I love despite his affair). So sad that people would be so unscrupulous.
ReplyDeleteI wouldn't have checked my ticket in public. If you did, and found out you won, how on earth could you contain yourself? I'd probably wet my pants and keel over with hysterical laughter/tears in front of the entire store. So, I check our tickets at home, where only my cats would see me in such a state should we win.
I read an article about past powerball/lottery winners and they said everybody comes out of the woodwork looking for loans, charities (some real some not) and family turned on them pretty quickly and expect to lose friends. You have to learn to say no and live on a budget, one guy waited years to buy a modest house because he was so scared of losing the money. It's a blessing and a curse.
ReplyDeleteI was watching something about lottery winners and this one guy had dozens and dozens of letters from strangers asking him for money. I hope he had a P.O. box and they weren't sending them to his house.
ReplyDeleteIIRC, you have a year to claim your prize. At least, it used to be like that. If that is still true, I'd move far away from any immediate moochers. Change my e-mail address and cell phone number. Talk to a good lawyer and financial planner about what to do, and then claim my money four months later. By the time anyone figured out how to contact me, I'd have security checks in place to block them. I'm not against sharing, but it will be on my terms, not what anyone else thinks they deserve.
ReplyDeleteI love the fact that he apparently came back in and paid for his gas...I don't think anybody would've blamed him for driving off in a haze after that, but how awesome. Some stories renew my faith in people. :)
ReplyDeleteThere's a semi-regular cable show called "Curse of the Lottery" (or something similar) about lottery winners and the stupid things they do. Rarely are there winners shown who make good choices and don't blown their winnings on stupid shit like knife collections. It's bad enough to see them end up broke, but when they end up millions of dollars in debt it's infuriating.
ReplyDeleteI've always said I wouldn't tell anyone, would work for 6 months & when I handed in my notice say that I was moving overseas for my husband's work. I have told my husband the same thing. He has friends he wants to give money to, & I said fine, but it is a one off. They are the type that will go through it. I would want to have a few months to really think about what to do with the money. I would love to buy a unit overseas as we love to travel. My dad would get a unit & never have to worry, the rest of our families, probably not. I would pay for education for a few children we know (we couldn't have any of our own), but the minute anyone asked for money I would cut them out of our lives. I don't think lottery winners should have any identifying info released, it puts them & their families in danger.
ReplyDeleteTo the MD guy in this video.
ReplyDeleteDo yourself a few favors: Hide. Get a tax attorney. Get an estate planner. Take your phone off the hook. This story does not help you as your life is about to get turned upside down.
And good luck.
To those calling this man an idiot - it must sting pretty bad to watch someone win a fortune and not be able to experience that for yourself. I forgive your jealous hatred and chalk it up to you having a bad day.
ReplyDeleteJesus I am so emotional today. That was awesome, and bless his giant heart (literally, he looks like a giant) for asking everyone to be a second pair of eyes.
ReplyDeleteHappy Friday :)
I'd watch this if it weren't for that GOD DAMNED FUCKING audio that plays out of nowhere that you can't stop.
ReplyDeleteI think there are only 6 or 7 States that let lottery winners remain anonymous. Every place else REQUIRES that your full name and city get published. I’m not sure if you are forced to stand there in a photo op with the oversized check, but your name and city are public. The lottery website for our State says it’s because they want everyone to know “that real people actually win” and to put a face on the players, etc. WTF?
ReplyDeleteI was a target of a stalker for many years and it amazes me that lottery winners always forget about removing their records from those shit-bag search engines. He would’ve needed to do all of that BEFORE he claimed the ticket. That and NOT be caught on security camera in the 1st place. It took me forever to get everything removed, and I still have to do Google Alerts and check periodically that another company hasn’t published my info. to the Universe. This is with me never being on FB or Linked-In or any of that shit. Simply having a public utility in your name (no matter how long ago) exposes you to the world.
This guy’s realtives, date of birth, house or apartment number, phone (even if it’s UNLISTED), everything will be public domain if it isn’t already. I’m happy for him but he and his family are in for a shit storm.
Yes, I’m guilty of checking old tickets in public instead of doing it on-line in private. Never for jackpots as big as this one, but deep down I guess I never thought the numbers would actually hit. In my case they never did.
@CDAN Reader - The public appearance is optional in most states, although for most of the big winners it's really the first time they've ever had any publicity, so they are flattered to be asked to be trotted out with the big check pony show. Agreeing to this sort of pr is the among the biggest mistakes a winner can make.
ReplyDeleteIn most states, the local lotto entity must declare a name and city as to who won. It keeps the org honest, providing a paper trail as to actual disbursing the money. The best way around this is to claim the winnings in the form of a blind trust. The lotto can then declare the trust as the winner, not the individual. A recent winner in New York did that (maybe 1-2 years ago?), which was extremely smart to do.
*actual distribution of the money.
ReplyDeleteThis seems to be relatively good advice: http://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache:http://www.rotten.com/library/culture/lottery-winners/&hl=en&tbo=d&strip=1
ReplyDeleteThat's my long lost father.
ReplyDelete