Ariz. Lottery says winner claims half of $588M:

PHOENIX (AP) — The other winner in last week’s record $577.5 million Powerball jackpot has claimed the ticket but has not revealed his or her identity, the Arizona Lottery said Friday.

The winner, who opted to take the cash option of $192 million, declined to take part in a news conference scheduled for Friday afternoon in Phoenix and wasn’t going to be immediately identified, the lottery said.

Can any one blame them for wanting to stay anonymous? Not me. It is amazing just how popular someone becomes when Lady Luck smiles on them or they inherit some soldi.

It happens everyday. Sick people never get company while they are on their death bed; that is until the lid slams in their face. If they have a few bucks, the funeral home has to put up a circus tent to accommodate all of the leaches.

The same has to be true with a lottery winner. There have been a lot of horror stories connected with lottery winners when it is all said and done they wished they would have never won.

Here are a few examples:

Andrew “Jack” Whittake
Winnings: $315 million
Time until bust: 4 years

Whittaker may have been the wealthiest man ever to win a major lottery jackpot. When the 55-year-old West Virginia construction company president won a $315 million Powerball jackpot in December 2002 — at the time, the largest jackpot ever won by a single ticket — he was already worth some $17 million. And Whittaker knew to distribute his new mega-wealth, pledging to give 10 percent of his fortune to Christian charities, donating $14 million to his Jack Whittaker Foundation, and even giving a $123,000 house, a new Dodge Ram Truck, and $50,000 in cash to the woman who worked at the convenience store where he had purchased his winning ticket.

But even Whittaker couldn’t escape his own demons. Beset by legal difficulties and personal problems, he began drinking heavily and frequenting strip clubs. On Aug. 5, 2003, thieves stole $545,000 from his car in a West Virginia strip club parking lot while he was inside. In January 2007, Whittaker reported to the police that thieves had completely emptied his bank accounts. On Jan. 25, 2004, robbers once again broke into his car, stealing an estimated $200,000 in cash that was later recovered. And a string of personal tragedies followed. On Sept. 17, 2004, his granddaughter’s boyfriend was found dead from a drug overdose in Whittaker’s home. Three months later, the granddaughter also died of a drug overdose. Her mother, Ginger Whittaker Bragg, died five years later on July 5, 2009. Whittaker himself is alleged to be broke — a claim he made as early as January 2007 for failing to pay a women who successfully sued him. He’s also being sued by Caesars Atlantic City casino for bouncing $1.5 million worth of checks to cover gambling losses. “I wish I’d torn that ticket up,” he sobbed to reporters at the time of his daughter’s death.

Billie Bob Harrell, Jr.

Winnings: $31 million
Time until bust: 20 months

Billie Bob Harrell, Jr. thought his problems were over when he won the $31 million Texas Lotto jackpot in June 1997. Nearly broke and constantly moving between low-paying jobs, with a wife and three children to support, the first of his $1.24 million annual payouts seemed like the light at the end of the tunnel. Instead, it was the beginning of a lot of runaway trains coming at Billy the 47-year-old Texan. It started out joyful: he quit his job at Home Depot, took his family to Hawaii, donated tens of thousands of dollars to his church, bought cars and houses for friends and family, and even donated 480 turkeys to the poor. But his lavish spending attracted unwanted attention, and he had to change his phone number several times after strangers called to demand donations. He also made a bad deal with a company that gives lottery winners lump-sum payments in exchange for their annual checks that left him with far less than what he had won. When Harrell and his wife Barbara Jean separated less than a year later, it was the straw that broke the camel’s back. His son found him dead inside his home from a self-inflicted gunshot wound on May 22, 1999, shortly before he was set to have dinner with his ex-wife. While family members disputed the idea that Harrell could have committed suicide, he clearly wasn’t happy with his life; he’d told a financial adviser shortly before his death that “Winning the lottery is the worst thing that ever happened to me.”

William Post III

Winnings: $315 million
Time until bust: 3 months

William Post III proved Notorious B.I.G.’s adage true: more money, more problems. After Post won $16.2 million in the Pennsylvania lottery in 1998, he fell victim to crime, bankruptcy, tragedy and simply poor spending habits. In the two weeks after he received his first annual payment of nearly $500,000, he had already blown two-thirds of it, purchasing a restaurant, a used-car lot, and an airplane. His reckless spending continued; within three months, he was $500,000 in debt. But numbers were the least of his problems. According to Yahoo News, Post’s brother was arrested for hiring a hit man to try to kill him and his sixth (yes, sixth) wife; his relatives convinced him to invest in worthless business ventures; and his landlady duped him into handing over a third of his cash. He ultimately filed for bankruptcy, and faced a stint in jail for firing a gun at a bill collector.
“Everybody dreams of winning money, but nobody realizes the nightmares that come out of the woodwork, or the problems,” Post said in 1993, according to the Washington Post.
It seemed unlikely that the windfall could do anything but good for Post, who had already endured a hard-knock childhood in an orphanage and a nomadic young adulthood. According to the Post, he told reporters that he was surviving on disability payments and had a mere $2.46 in his bank account on the day he won millions. Still, the win did little improve his lot in life, and Post allegedly claimed, “I was much happier when I was broke.” Post died of respiratory failure in 2006 at age 66, leaving behind his seventh wife and nine children from his second marriage.
Keith Gough

Winnings: £9 million (about $14 million)

Time until bust: 5 years
Keith Gough didn’t squander the majority of his windfall fortune — a group of con men did. After Gough’s wife Louise hit the jackpot in 2005, the family spent their wealth normally: they bought a luxurious new home and Gough rented a $560,000 luxury box to watch his favorite soccer team, Aston Villa. But he began drinking “out of boredom” after quitting his job at a bakery, he told newspapers, and his wife left him in 2007. While being treated in rehab, he met James Prince, a dastardly-named con man who convinced Gough to join him in a series of shady business deals, allowing Prince to tap Gough’s bank account to the tune of $1.1 million. Gough was also renting a $1.6 million house and paying annual salaries to a gardener and a chauffeur. But his riches wouldn’t be enjoyed for long: he died in March 2010 of a heart attack, believed to have been brought on by drinking and stress. At the time of his death he still had nearly $1.3 million in the bank.
Michael Carroll

Winnings: £9.7 million (about $15.5 million)
Time until bust: 8 years

Dubbed the “Lotto Lout” in his native England, Michael Carroll did exactly what those who come into sudden cash are advised not to do: he blew it all on drugs and hookers. According to the Daily Mail, the 19-year-old collected his £9.7 million (more than $15.5 million) in 2002 while wearing an “electronic offender’s tag,” distributed some to family and friends, and then unapologetically frittered away the rest on drugs, gambling and thousands of prostitutes. The British tabloid reported that by 2003, Carroll was allegedly smoking more than $3,000 worth of crack cocaine daily and regularly throwing indulgent parties at his $500,000 home.
Perhaps unsurprisingly, Carroll’s behavior drove away his wife and young daughter. Just eight years later Carroll had already spent all his winnings. He went back to living off his £42 ($67) per week unemployment benefits but claimed the return to a more humble lifestyle suited him just fine.

“The party has ended and it’s back to reality,” Carroll told the Daily Mail in 2010. “I haven’t got two pennies to rub together and that’s the way I like it. I find it easier to live off £42 dole than a million.”
The next year, however, Carroll admitted to having attempted suicide twice after he’d frittered his millions away.

Recently a woman was convicted of killing a homeless guy that won a 17 million lottery. She forged a will in his name and put herself as the beneficiary.

These are just some of the hard-luck stories connected with winners of the lottery that wished they would have never won.

Moral of this story for people that come into a lot of found money should be; “Who ever walked with you before you had a car is the person/people that will ride with you after you buy one”!

Who needs them?