Winner: Willis Willis
Prize Amount: $1 Million
The Curse: In 2010, Willis spent $2 on a $1 million winning lottery ticket at the Lucky Mart in Grand Prairie, Texas. When he turned in the ticket to clerk owner Pankaj Joshi, Joshi said that the numbers didn’t match up, that it wasn’t a winning ticket, and kept the ticket for himself. He then cashed it himself and hit to road for Nepal, where he is yet to be found. Willis sued the Texas Lottery, who claim that Joshi is the winner and rightful owner of the winnings, though they proceeded to file charges against him and located and froze a $395,000 account they believed belonged to him. Willis was awarded the $395K, which is a lot of money, but surely he’s kicking himself every day knowing the man who screwed him over is living off more than twice that. (Do you know how cheap rent is in Nepal?) As for claiming the rest of the funds, it looks like Willis is shit out of luck, although I wonder if a $395,000 investigation/trip to Nepal is in the cards. Sometimes a lotto-winner’s gotta take matters into his own hands. [NBC]
