Posted on 01/10/2014 11:20:04 AM PST by Cincinatus' Wife
St. Petersburg - A few weeks before Thanksgiving, staff at the Loving Care assisted living facility in St. Petersburg realized something had changed in Malcolm Ramsey's life.
Relatives who had never paid much attention to Ramsey, 55 and mentally incompetent, suddenly started showing up in droves. Bulging bags from T.J. Maxx and Bealls filled his half of a tiny, shared bedroom. Boxes of new athletic shoes — Nike, New Balance, K-Swiss — towered against the wall.
Then there were the rumors that Ramsey had hit it big in the Florida lottery.
Ramsey's legal guardian got involved. So did St. Petersburg police, an adult protective services worker and, eventually, a judge. And slowly, the story came out.
Sometime in October, Ramsey had won "$500 a week for life" on a scratch-off Florida Lottery ticket. With the help of a cab driver, he had gotten an ID, a copy of his birth certificate and a ride to Tallahassee to claim the prize. He took it as a lump-sum payout — $403,288.
In barely four weeks, Ramsey blew through more than half the money, with little of value to show for it. He says he wanted the cash, but by taking it all he is in danger of losing the government benefits he has relied on to survive.
(Excerpt) Read more at tampabay.com ...
I do well enough that I could get my family some pretty substantial amounts without creating too much suspicion. I would probably give almost all the money away, anonymously, to worthy causes. However, if my secret ever leaked out, anyone who asked for money would be denied.
Same thing happened recently to my nieces ex hubby. His dad had changed his will worth millions in property and cash. He left everything in a locked trust to the grand kids except the house his son was living in. Mega bucks in real estate. Condos in Malibu, Ventura Keys, etc., plus a ton of acreage that is farmed in Oklahoma.
Anything I have left goes to cats.
Depending on his level of care he could easily spend 60k a year for care. Not saying it is correct and it is not usual to spend more. They actually have attorneys that specialize in clearing your estate properly in order to qualify for medicaid so as not to spend your own money on care.
Yes, it is.
Benefits....more like welfare/wallet transfer. But, Dingy Harry just said, the other day, we have to make sure these people keep getting their "benefits" .
And also rather disgusting. The guy won the lottery. If he spends all the money and ends up with nothing next month — well, he’s no worse off than he was before, and he had the fun of spending a ton of money.
Why is it that other people think everybody has to be controlled?
Maybe because we are the ones who are paying for his care. If he won money he should be paying for his own care, not buying shoes.
Might be a good policy with legal settlements, unexpected inheritances and other windfalls.
These stories of exploitation always interest me. I will probably post this on Twitter. There are really no good guys in this story that I can see, but the biggest bad guys are the probably the relatives. I don’t know this man personally so don’t know his mental state. One thing for the few states who still don’t have lotteries to think about-Do we really want to do this? I know that lotteries are one of the few ways to increase government revenue without taxation a d that’s pretty irresistible but they get into bed with the devil to do it. This guy could have been lots of people I knew in my old inner city neighborhood in Seattle. At certain times of month, they were 3or 4 deep buying lottery tickets at the customer service counter at Safeway.
Lottery horror stories are not uncommon. Read Money for Nothing by Ugel(forget his first name.) He was in something called the”lump sum” industry before states started offering lump sums themselves.
And exploitation stories aren’t unusual either. We had a case at a West Seattle car dealership where a mentally ill guy who had inherited money from his mother was victimized from the very salesmen who had sold him a vehicle( must have gotten his drivers license from the same place Adam Lanza got his). They actually went to his home to rob it. They also got him to sign the vehicle back to one if them while he was in the ER(King co. Psych intake) at Harborview. A social worker there dropped the ball. The most sickening thing to me at the trial was one of the car sales men’s dads sticking up for his son. I hate that. You also know that there had to be people at that dealership—cashiers, bookkeepers, even the guy sweeping the floors, who knew something was funny and could have blown the whistle. Not to mention people like the car dealers wives or girlfriends.
Thes people were all Caucasian, if that matters.
I’m for that!
To my guests: my cats live here; you don't.
Funny how the relatives who could not take this man in and care for him suddenly showed up when he could do something for THEM.
Money for Nothing: One Man’s Journey Through the Dark Side of Lottery Millions by Edward Ugel.
It’s not the best book written about gambling, I’m sure, but the only one I’ve read. It reinforced a lot of what I already knew. A lot of big lottery winners, even if they aren’t mentally ill or disabled, end up impoverished and miserable again within a few years. I’m not saying that there aren’t people who handle the winnings responsibly and enhance their own and others lives while avoiding pitfalls. (The only one I can think if offhand is in the novel The Bone People and she was a fictional character, in New Zealand.) But you have to think of the kind of magical thinking mindset that buys lottery tickets instead of using those few dollars a month( or whatever they spend on them out if each disability check or whatever) and put it in a little savings account or something. Then look at the politicians we elect. My precinct near the aforementioned Safeway went I think 86% for Obama in 2008, 80% for Kerry in 2004.
Money for Nothing: One Man’s Journey Through the Dark Side of Lottery Millions by Edward Ugel.
It’s not the best book written about gambling, I’m sure, but the only one I’ve read. It reinforced a lot of what I already knew. A lot of big lottery winners, even if they aren’t mentally ill or disabled, end up impoverished and miserable again within a few years. I’m not saying that there aren’t people who handle the winnings responsibly and enhance their own and others lives while avoiding pitfalls. (The only one I can think if offhand is in the novel The Bone People and she was a fictional character, in New Zealand.) But you have to think of the kind of magical thinking mindset that buys lottery tickets instead of using those few dollars a month( or whatever they spend on them out if each disability check or whatever) and put it in a little savings account or something. Then look at the politicians we elect. My precinct near the aforementioned Safeway went I think 86% for Obama in 2008, 80% for Kerry in 2004.
Money for Nothing: One Man’s Journey Through the Dark Side of Lottery Millions by Edward Ugel.
It’s not the best book written about gambling, I’m sure, but the only one I’ve read. It reinforced a lot of what I already knew. A lot of big lottery winners, even if they aren’t mentally ill or disabled, end up impoverished and miserable again within a few years. I’m not saying that there aren’t people who handle the winnings responsibly and enhance their own and others lives while avoiding pitfalls. (The only one I can think if offhand is in the novel The Bone People and she was a fictional character, in New Zealand.) But you have to think of the kind of magical thinking mindset that buys lottery tickets instead of using those few dollars a month( or whatever they spend on them out if each disability check or whatever) and put it in a little savings account or something. Then look at the politicians we elect. My precinct near the aforementioned Safeway went I think 86% for Obama in 2008, 80% for Kerry in 2004.
>> Lottery winner’s lifetime of money gone in weeks,
Somebody in Congress?
I didnt mean to post that 3 times. I’ll be more careful in the future.
What a loser. The gubmint handout makes me sick.
Two words. Abraham Shakespeare.
5.56mm
;^)
5.56mm
In my not-so-humble opinion that's what people should do with their estates. There is no need or reason to give it to relatives, even their children (I would make a partial exception for those children who have helped their parents in the instance of dire need of the latter in their last years, but I still would not give all of it to them). There are so many charities that could make good use of those funds. Personally, I prefer to give to charities that help animals, but that's just me.
And yes, 100 percent of my estate and that of my wife is going to be given to charities.
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