Touching stories of winning the lottery

We bring you some of the most compelling stories of winners who have hit the jackpot.

Juan Rodriguez

In 2004 Colombian immigrant Juan Rodriguez, who was living in America at the time, snatched up a jackpot of $140 million.

For a long time his luck was showing Juan’s heel, but now it has turned to a more attractive position. Until he won the lottery, Juan had to work as a security guard in a car park. He worked hard and barely survived from paycheck to paycheck.
As soon as the fortunate man received his $59 million winnings (what was left over after taxing the winnings), his wife filed for divorce. The ex-wife decided that she could get half of the winnings. Once his wife left Juan, he decided to contact experts.

The experts told him how to manage his money properly, and he went on to take courses that explained how to say ‘no’.

Cary Collins

Although compared to our previous hero, Cary Collins, a resident of the US, didn’t pull off such a big score, he still has the right to call himself lucky.

Cary was working as an employee at a Boeing plant and while filling up his car he decided to buy an instant lottery ticket. After wiping off the protective layer, he realised he had won $55,500.
To celebrate his lucky day, Collins ordered a huge pizza and bought three more lottery tickets. It turned out that one of the tickets was also profitable – it brought Cary $200,000. Once journalists asked Collins as part of the interview what he was going to do next, Cary replied that he definitely wasn’t going to quit his job.

Nguyen Van Het

In 2010, a long-time Vietnamese villager, a 97-year-old farmer who had been poor all his life, won an unthinkable sum by the standards of Vietnamese. We are talking about 310 thousand dollars.

And the story began with the fact that during the New Year celebrations, Nguyen’s family gave him 100 thousand Vietnamese currency. Such small amounts of money are considered lucky money. Nguyen decided to test his luck and used the money to buy a lottery ticket.

Once Nguyen Van Het received his winnings, he was so happy that he decided to start distributing the winning money to all the people who came to his house to congratulate the winner. In order to at least somehow save the rest of the money, local government officials had to intervene in such a charity.

When asked what he would do with the remaining money, Nguyen said he wanted to spend it as soon as possible, given that he did not have long to live. And the first thing Nguyen Van Het did was to buy a comfortable house and move in with his wife.

Rosemary Obiekor

While the winner from Vietnam decided to give away a certain portion of the winning money, a Nigerian woman gave away her entire winnings after winning the lottery. She decided to share her joy and gave all the money to the first beggar woman she met.

Rosemary won the lottery in 2009. The money was not much, just over €15,000, but at the time the average salary in Nigeria was just $62. So it was a fabulous sum by the standards of the local people.

The woman decided to find a completely unconventional solution. When they congratulated her at the ceremony and handed out the prize, Rosemary immediately announced that she wanted to give her winnings in full to the first beggar she met. According to Rosemary, she decided this because most winners, after receiving their winnings, would immediately spend it on something boring.

Rosemary kept her promise and gave the prize to a beggar she met with a baby in her arms.