Arnim Ramdass just never learned to share.
Ramdass, an American Airline mechanic, was part of a pool of 17 people (all mechanics) who won a lottery jackpot of $19 million. Then he began an impressive charade of keeping it a secret from his wife, Donna Campbell. He disconnected their home telephone, and he never turned on the television (because stories of the winning group were all over the news). But one day, a postcard arrived in the mail – congratulating him on the purchase of a new house.
Brian Tucker and Margaret Dallard won almost $500,000 in the UK Lottery, but they won’t be spending any money on clothes.
Rather than a new wardrobe, the couple have plans to pay off a couple of mortgages and give some money to their children (between them, they have 8 kids). Beyond that, they are planning a trip to a nudist – excuse me, naturist – camp somewhere in Europe.
The lottery was the best thing, and the worst thing, to happen to Ken Proxmire.
Proxmire was a machinist in Michigan when he won $1 million in the lottery. The next few years were sort of a whirlwind – he moved to California, and went into business. He and his brothers started an automobile business. Things didn’t go so well, and 5 years later Proxmire was filing for bankruptcy.
How can things go so bad so quickly? Well, usually people that are suddenly wealthy don’t really know how to manage that money.
Luke Pittard was 24 years old and working at McDonald’s. He bought a lottery ticket, and he won US$2.6 million. So of course he quits his job, marries his sweetheart, and takes a worldwide vacation.
That took about a year and a half. Then he remembered how great his life was when he was working at McDonald’s, so he went back and asked for his old job back.
If you ask Mark Weir how he won the lottery, he’ll tell you it’s because he stopped playing – at least in his office lottery pool.
Weir bought shares in his office lottery pool for years and only won very small amounts occasionally. He works as a machine operator in a plastics factory. This time, he went out and bought his own ticket. He immediately won US$5.3 million in a Lotto jackpot.
He has a few plans. He is going on a shopping spree with his wife, Julie.