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Tonda Dickerson won the £7 million jackpot at the Waffle House restaurant where she worked.
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A customer gave the ticket to her as a tip, which set off a chain of bad luck, including a kidnapping.
Tonda Dickerson won the £7 million jackpot at the Waffle House restaurant in Alabama.
A woman who won a jackpot worth £7 million claims that the people who tried to steal her money destroyed her life.
While working as a waitress at a Waffle House in Grand Bay, Alabama, Tonda Dickerson received the multimillion-pound ticket as a tip.
However, ever since she won the prize in 1999, she has spent a significant amount of it on legal actions to safeguard her funds.
She additionally turned into the casualty of wrongdoing when her furnished ex abducted her and held her despite her desire to the contrary.
On March 7, 1999, diner Edward Seward finished his cheap meal. Tonda was in her late 20s and had just divorced.
Edward – probable reasoning it a less expensive choice than forking out a couple of dollars – gave Tonda a lotto ticket for an attract Florida as a tip.
After a few days, her numbers came in, and she realized that her lucky break had made her a multimillionaire.
The £7.3 million ($10 million) she won would be approximately £11.94 million ($16.4 million) in current currency.
After her 1999 win, Tonda has spent huge pieces of her rewards on claims
Tonda chose to accept a £275k annual payment over 30 years rather than the lump sum. After that, she left Waffle House and began making plans for a new life with her modest fortune.
In any case, her partners had different thoughts and blamed her for breaking a verbal agreement that she would part any of the rewards with them.
After securing the life-altering sum, she had to pay high legal fees to protect her winnings. Tonda made the promise to her coworkers, according to witnesses at the restaurant.
In under one hour the court had disallowed her. She turned down the court’s offer to keep $3 million.
She, on the other hand, began investing her winnings in a family business.
However, one more fortunate turn of events came when the Alabama High Court toppled her past conviction based on her commitment being a type of unlawful betting.
The ticket-giver Mr. Seward claimed that she swore she could get him a new truck if she won, which led to a second lawsuit.
Again, her lawyers argued that Tonda’s offer was a “throwaway” comment and not legally binding.
Stacy Martin, Tonda’s ex-husband, kidnapped the former waitress shortly after the ruling with a handgun of.22 caliber.
He drove her to an abandoned boat jetty in Jackson County, Alabama, and held her there against her will.
Before allowing her to answer the third call, Stacy stopped her from doing so twice.
After that, Tonda took his gun from him and shot him in the chest.
Although Stacy was taken to the hospital with a gunshot wound, no one was charged with a crime.
Tonda was then ordered to pay $1 million in “gift taxes” in addition to a significant income tax bill.
She was saved covering a far bigger bill when a court controlled in 2012 she needed to pay simply a level of the “gift segment” – adding up to $1,119,347.90, Forbes revealed Tonda is supposed to be as yet working subsequent to giving most of her rewards to her loved ones.
She claims to be employed as a poker dealer at the Golden Nugget casino in Biloxi, Mississippi, according to her social media profiles.