BACOG Ping.
Posted on 12/28/2006 8:04:31 AM PST by commish
ASSOCIATED PRESS
Published on: 12/28/06
The man who won a $208 million Mega Millions lottery jackpot with his wife in April 2005 has died, police and a family spokesman said.
Ralph Stebbins died Saturday at his home in Arcadia Township, Michigan, near Lapeer, Sheriff's Sgt. Andy Engster told the Times Herald of Port Huron. Family spokesman Robert Kolt said he suffered a heart attack. He was 43.
Ralph and his wife, Mary, elected to take a lump-sum payment of $124.7 million, less taxes. They could have chosen to spread $208 million in payments over 26 years.
The couple used part of their winnings to buy a recreational vehicle and said they planned to buy a cow, pay off bills and build a garage to house a 1963 Corvette.
Kolt said he was not aware that Mr. Stebbins had a history of heart problems or that he was feeling ill.
"He seemed healthy and he was a very active guy," Kolt told the Detroit Free Press for a Wednesday story. "I think everybody was surprised."
Mr. Stebbins had previously worked for a well-digging company in Port Huron, where the couple formerly lived, while Mary Stebbins was a $7-per-hour retail sales clerk at a general merchandise store.
Both quit their jobs after winning the jackpot and planned to help several other family members retire.
The Stebbinses purchased their winning ticket at a supermarket in Port Huron and had been buying five easy pick Mega Millions tickets a week on a regular basis.
The couple had been married for 23 years and had three children.
I'm a redhead. It's funny that EVERYONE wants to be a redhead now, but back when I was a teen NO one wanted to be a redhead. I got teased mercilessly!
I'd rather be dead than red on the head. Or...Carrot top jokes. I could go on and on. I had quite a complex and wanted to dye my hair and take tried all kinds of concoctions to lose my freckles. Nothing worked.
BACOG Ping.
28 Apr 1997 Lottery millionaire Michael Allen is bludgeoned to death in a Lewiston, Maine motel room.
22 May 1999 Billie Bob Harrell, Jr. commits suicide. In June 1997, Harrell won $31 million in the Texas state lottery.
4 Sep 2001 Patrick Collier randomly wins $1 million at a McDonald's in Holly Hill, Florida. "I'm getting a Harley and a couple of houses." Two weeks later, Collier is arrested for allegedly choking and punching his fiancee in the face.
19 Dec 2001 British lottery millionaire Phil Kitchen is found dead on his couch. Kitchen had apparently drunk himself to death (whiskey).
11 Jul 2002 British lottery winner Dennis Elwell dies at work, shortly after telling a coworker that he had drunk cyanide.
21 Apr 2003 $25 million lottery winner Richard Krenzer is stabbed six times by Randall Hillyard and his son at the Swillburg Stop Bar & Grill outside Rochester, NY.
29 Jun 2003 Lottery millionaire Jody Lee Taylor is arrested in Collinsville, Virginia for attempting to run over a sheriff's deputy. On the night of his arrest, Taylor was driving naked down the wrong side of U.S. Route 58 with his headlights off.
5 Aug 2003 After lottery millionaire Jack Whittaker passes out in a West Virginia strip bar, a burglar steals his briefcase containing $545,000 in negotiable bonds. The money is located in a trash dumpster the next morning.
13 Sep 2003 The London Telegraph reports that 16-year-old British lottery millionaire Callie Rogers has lost her boyfriend, fought with her father, been mugged, and been accused of stealing someone's man. "Some days I don't even want to leave my house because people just scream abuse at me. Two months ago I thought I was the luckiest teenager in Britain. But today I can say I have never felt so miserable."
15 Sep 2003 In his Egg Harbor Township, New Jersey home, lottery millionaire Oscar Cordoba repeatedly stabs his wife and her mother with a kitchen knife, killing the mother-in-law.
17 Oct 2003 In a program entitled Living with the Lottery Lout, ITV1 reports that British lottery millionaire Michael Carroll has completely alienated his neighbors in Swaffham, Norfolk by periodically staging loud, impromptu demolition derbies on his property.
18 Nov 2003 An English court issues a bench warrant for lottery millionaire Satish Patel, charged with defrauding the government for three years' worth of unemployment claims.
6 Jan 2004 After getting banned from Billy Sundays Bar and Grill in St Albans, West Virginia, lottery winner Jack Whittaker reportedly threatens to have the manager and his family killed.
20 Jan 2004 Lottery winner Jack Whittaker reports that shortly after dawn, somebody broke into his SUV in Scott Depot, West Virginia and stole a bag containing $100,000 cash.
25 Jan 2004 Lottery winner Jack Whittaker is arrested for drunk driving in Nitro, West Virginia. Police allege the millionaire blew a .190 blood alcohol on the breathalyzer.
Apr 2004 A judge rules that broke Virginia lottery millionaire Suzanne Mullins owes $154,146.50 to the People's Lottery Foundation, a Florida lending institution specializing in loans to lottery winners.
26 Jun 2004 At his Longmont, Colorado home, state lottery millionaire Kevin Lee Sutton allegedly shoots Cristobal Lopez in the head with a .22 caliber pistol. Lopez survives and Sutton is later charged with attempted murder.
20 Jul 2004 In Minneapolis, MN, lottery millionaire Victoria A. Zell reportedly crashes her SUV into a truck on the way home from a bar, killing passenger Joshua Schmidt and paralyzing Amity Dimock from the waist down.
7 Aug 2004 Incarcerated serial rapist Iorworth Hoare wins $12.9 million in the British lottery.
13 Aug 2004 The nonprofit group Equine Protection of North America files suit against New Hampshire lottery millionaire Mary Ellen Sanderson for failure to deliver on an alleged $70,000 annual donation pledge.
24 Aug 2004 An Arizona bird refuge, The Oasis Sanctuary, files suit against New Hampshire lottery millionaires Mary Ellen Sanderson and former husband Jason Sanderson for failure to deliver on an alleged $100,000 annual donation pledge.
Sep 2004 Minnesota lottery millionaire Victoria A. Zell is arrested for having allegedly violated the terms of her bail and possessing 0.7 grams of methamphetamine. Zell had also reportedly wired $500,000 to a Canadian bank.
10 Oct 2004 Seattle police officers shoot California lottery millionaire Rick Camat to death in a parking lot near Qwest Field. Officers claim that Camat refused to drop his pistol, but Camat's brother claims the cops give him no instructions to do so.
2 Oct 2005 Having spent his $10 million prize in just seven years, Winnipeg lottery winner Gerald Muswagon hangs himself. Notable events in his monied spree include a high-speed chase in 2000 and a sexual assault arrest in 2002.
28 Oct 2005 Million dollar jackpot winner Christina Goodenow is arrested after Oregon police discover that she had purchased the winning ticket with a credit card stolen from her dead mother-in-law. Police searching her home discover her stash of methamphetamine, but find no trace of her first $33,500 installment.
15 Jan 2006 Bankrupt ex-lottery millionaire William "Bud" Post III dies of respiratory failure in Seneca, Pennsylvania. Post had won $16.2 million in the Pennsylvania lottery on February 24, 1988. From a 1993 interview: "Everybody dreams of winning money, but nobody realizes the nightmares that come out of the woodwork, or the problems."
We've been sending you E-mails telling you that you won the Irish Lottery and the Canadian Sweepstakes.
All you need to do is send us money to cover the taxes and wire transfer fees.
I have often imagined that the odds of playing and winning the jackpot are nearly the same as having the winning ticket handed to you on the street by a total stranger.
I am assuming the winnings are jointly owned by the him and his wife. The winnings should not become an "estate" until the wife dies.
Being of sound mind and body...
...I spent it all while I was still alive.
It's simpler then that, the winnings should be jointly owned by the married couple, so they are not subject to estate taxes until both spouses are deceased.
I'll bet that he realized that daughter'$ boyfriend wa$ after $omething more than hi$ daughter.
Adding a new chapter to the game, Clue: Stebbins did it with a pocketknife at the auction.
Condolences to the family. It seems taking the lump-sum rather than the annuity was the right decision. Still, I can't help but think of the rich man in Christ's parable, who builds larger barns, and tells his soul to be at ease.
May God grant him forgiveness of his sins, both voluntary and involuntary, known and unknown, shelter his soul is the bosom of Abraham, and grant him a good defense at Christ' fearful judgement seat.
I forgot the name of one winner who stated that his life became hell after he won, with people constantly after him for money.
Condolences to the family. It seems taking the lump-sum rather than the annuity was the right decision. Still, I can't help but think of the rich man in Christ's parable, who builds larger barns, and tells his soul to be at ease.
May God grant him forgiveness of his sins, both voluntary and involuntary, known and unknown, shelter his soul is the bosom of Abraham, and grant him a good defense at Christ' fearful judgement seat.
In our family, a "family dispute" is a short conversation about whether the breast of the turkey was too dry - out of earshot of the cook.
This is a litany of what happens when people who aren't used to money get a big whacking chunk of it.
Redheads are extremely dangerous. No wonder he died young.
It can be a curse. Just look at that asshole Mark Cuban.
One of the best lessons that my Dad taught me was the relative unimportance of "things".He was a Depression Baby who worked darn hard,provided well for his family and was very,very generous to those he loved.In the later years of his life he was what most Americans would have called "very comfortable".
And yet,while he could have worn any watch made and driven any car made...he wore a Timex and drove an Oldsmobile.
Thanks to him,I learned long ago that money doesn't buy happiness.
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