Unlucky in Love, Lucky in the Lotto

Finally, the shall we say unusual strategy of Raymond Sobeski is making a bit of sense, Sobeski for those who haven't said out loud "is that guy stupid" yet, is the guy who waited almost a year before claiming his 30 million dollar jackpot from the Super 7 lottery.

Yesterday the lengthy wait was described by Sobeski as just not wanting to do anything rash; you know just making sure he was ready to manage his money. He said he had been talking to a lawyer and a financial planner all in order to properly take charge of his fortune. While he was waiting to claim his fortune he was maxing out his credit cards and living from card to card. Truly a bizarre tale, even the worst failure at high school math could calculate that a full year of lost interest on 30 million would preferable to living off your maxed out cards and the debt incurred by them! It had a lot of folks thinking the guy was a few bricks short of a load, not the sharpest knife in the drawer, fill in your own homespun theory for him. It left you thinking there must be something more to this story, and well as we'll see shortly there was!

Yesterday came across as one of those aw shucks moments, the feeling in evidence at the Lottery office as he accepted his multi million dollar payday. Staff talking about how nice he seemed, just a gentle guy, and a simple fellow happy to have found some luck. No special people in his life, a Mom and Dad he wants to help out, no real goals yet, just wanting to do this up right. You could hear the Aw that's so sweet, resonating throughout the office. His last words to the journalistic pack on hand were: "I'm not going home; I'm getting on a plane, leaving the country and going somewhere for a vacation."

Today the top secret vacation spot sounds more like a get away hideout, for the story of Raymond Sobeski, is apparently a tad more complicated than the simple man on TV would have us explain.

The too good to be true story is apparently full of holes and one gets the feeling that more than one lawyer is going to be attaching him or herself into that 30 million dollar pile of cash. Sobeski, who described himself a single guy with no real attachments, has wandered down the aisle not once but twice in his 40 odd years. Leaving one wife with a couple of kids in his wake, divorced a few years ago. He finalized the divorce from his second wife less than two months ago. He managed to get the paper work out of the way, just in time to cash in his winning ticket.

Neither ex-wife was apparently in the loop regarding his good fortune; ex number two even had dinner with him the night of his giant payday, unaware that he had become a millionaire thirty times over. She was even surprised to receive a bottle of expensive champagne from him; apparently he received it from a bank when he made a sizeable deposit.

As you can imagine, the Lottery Corporation is astounded at the turn of events, amazed that yesterday's quaint story would turn into the mystery of the year. From their point of view all is well, they did the requisite check with the Family maintenance people, found no outstanding claims on Sobeski, and so paid him out the 30 million. However, stories are filtering out that Sobeski had presented wife number two with divorce papers, but she had never signed them. There are also reports that he has been presented with child support requests that hunfulfilledullfilled.

Regardless of the events of the past, with the new scenario, one can imagine that Mrs. Sobeski 1 and 2, might be a bit interested in an opportunity for a chat with lawyers in tow. Family law lawyer Linda Silver Dranoff is quick off the mark to point out that if he neglected to mention his newfound status as a monied man, during the final proceedings he will eventually pay the price for his silence.

For now, somewhere on a beach no doubt, is Raymond Sobeski, a guy that had his fifteen minutes of fame and is long gone. The quick escape takes on back to the days of Ronnie Biggs of the Great Train robbery, living out his life in Brazil. We wonder if we'll ever see hide or hair of Raymond again. The easy money says that 30 million can keep you away from home for a very long time. But we'll take even odds, that should he step back into Canada, lawyers and ex wives will be staking their claim, one wonders how much will be left by the time he returns, assuming of course he ever does!