Lottery Winners Who Lost Everything

Barry Shell, 45, of Brampton, Ontario, walked into a Petro-Canada station in his hometown to buy a pack of cigarettes with less than $5 in his pocket—and what proved to be the winning lottery ticket for a July 2009 Ontario Lottery drawing, worth over $4 million Canadian. Overjoyed, Shell signed his winning ticket and drove to the Ontario Lottery and Gaming Corp. headquarters in Toronto the next day to validate his ticket and claim his prize.

Unfortunately for him, the authentication the Ontario Lottery runs on its large prize winners includes a police background check, which revealed a 2003 warrant for Shell’s arrest for his failure to appear on charges of theft and possession of stolen property.