Unpleasant surprise for lottery winner

Jul 24, 2009
Canadian lottery player Barry Shell experienced a bitter sweet moment in Toronto this week when he learned that he had won Cdn$ 4 million on the lottery.

Arriving at the offices of the Ontario Lottery and Gaming Corp to claim his windfall, he was met by police detective Kevin Finley and informed he was under arrest.

"I hate to wreck your happy dance," Finley told Shell, according to reports in the Toronto Star newspaper.

Shell had several outstanding warrants from 2003 for theft of cameras, global positioning systems, memory cards and watches, and when the lottery ran its customary security checks on the winner, it unearthed his questionable past.

The policeman had enough heart to allow Finley to collect his $4 million cheque before he carted him off to a court, which let him out on $1 500 bail pending a hearing at the end of July.

The 45-year-old lottery winner made his living as a carpenter, owned no car and lived in a basement apartment, the Star reported.

When he bought his lottery ticket, he had 50 cents in his pocket.
General Gambling News Bingo Society News Back to articles