10 lottery winners who went on crazy buying sprees with their jackpot prizes
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We spend a lot of time daydreaming about winning the lottery. And the thing we all dream about most is the things we'd buy with all that cash. A big jackpot means you can afford just about anything your heart desires.
But even with all that money, some winners make seriously weird purchases when they win big…
Many people believe you should be allowed to buy anything you want if you've got lucky enough to win the lottery. Let’s find out how 10 big winners spent their fortune.
Lee Kuchczynski
Photo: The National Lottery
Lee had something crazy at the top of his shopping list. He was driving his truck when he got a call from his wife to tell him they'd won the Euromillions lottery.
They'd won £3.6 million pounds - or about $4.2 million. That's enough money to fulfill just about any dream. So what was the first thing Lee bought with his new fortune? A backscratcher. If you're picturing some kind of technologically advanced backscratching tool, you're on the wrong track.
Lee's $10 back scratcher had snapped a few days before. So he figured, now he was rich, he could splash out on a brand new $20 one!
Peter Lavery
PHOTO: TELEGRAPH
Lots of lottery winners buy drinks for everyone at the bar to celebrate their big win. But Peter Lavery didn't just want to buy drinks for everyone - he wanted to make the drinks too. He'd won a whopping $17.7 million, so as a whiskey lover he bought a distillery with a huge chunk of his winnings - $5 million! Amazingly, his distillery is actually still making a profit today!
Greta and Tony Dodd
PHOTO: DAILY MAIL
If you're one-half of a loving couple, there's probably something you'd buy for both of you with a lottery win. Usually, that's a luxury holiday in a dream location.
When Greta and Tony Dodd won $3.4 million, they were one of those couples who knew exactly what to buy. They wanted new knees. They loved going dancing together, but Greta had been suffering from joint problems. But when all that money suddenly came their way, they immediately found a surgeon who could give Greta a new set of knees! Now the couple can dance the night away again!
David Copeland
If I asked what you'd buy if you won the lottery, most people would probably say their first purchase would be their dream house. That was David Copeland's answer too. When he won $1 million, the first thing he did was buy land for his future homes in his dream locations.
But he wasn't looking at a tropical island or a cosmopolitan city. He bought land, and now owns land on the Moon, Mars, and Venus!
Keith Gough
Keith Gough won £9 million pounds thanks to the UK National Lottery - that's worth about US$10.6 million. There's a lot you can do with that money, but his biggest mistake was a racehorse.
Keith was a baker. He knew nothing about horse racing or looking after an animal like that. It ended up costing him over a quarter of a million dollars!
After that, Keith found himself doing a race of his own - a downhill race to poverty - and sadly died later of a heart attack .
Debbie Mather
DAILY MAIL
Debbie Mather won $6 million back in 2005. It can be hard to know what to do with all that cash. So she thought back to the thing she loved most as a child - fireworks. She used to love watching fireworks as a kid.
So when she won a fortune, she decided the best thing she could buy was a fireworks factory! It's still operating today, so she can keep lighting up the faces of children - literally.
Michael Carroll
Michael Carroll was just 19 when he won a UK National Lottery jackpot. He took home a huge jackpot - the equivalent of $18 million!
Michael loved cars, so, like many lottery winners, he spent way too much of his new fortune on super expensive sports cars. But, even though he was old enough to drive, he wasn't taking his cars out on the road. So he built a huge racetrack in the backyard of his new mansion. Apparently, it didn't take long for his backyard to start looking like a scrap heap.
Sarah Cockings
Sarah Cockings had a generous nature, so when she won $4 million, she decided she wanted to give her sisters a boob job for them all!
Apparently, they were super happy with their gifts. And that was the only unusual purchase Sarah made with her millions! She's still living comfortably off her lottery winnings, thanks to some very responsible spending.
Jonathan Vargas
Jonathan Vargas won a whopping $35 million, and he knew what to do with it. He created his own TV show! But his goal wasn't to make himself a star.
It was called Wrestlicious, and it featured lots of women in bikinis wrestling with each other. Jonathan clearly had very specific taste. Unfortunately, the show wasn't a great success.
