what would you do in a situation like this?
Lottery turns friends into fiendshttp://www.trinidadexpress.com/index.pl/article_news?id=161205079Richard Charan South Bureau
Wednesday, September 19th 2007
For 14 years, Karen Ramoutar spent her days cleaning mall stores, living from pay cheque to pay cheque-a single mother hoping for a break.
She thought it came last Friday, when she bought an instant lottery ticket for a friend, who agreed to split the money 50-50 if they won. They were lucky.
The two celebrated their escape from poverty-the game paying $50,000 per year for the next 20 years.
It was Ramoutar's happiest moment, she said.
But what followed were the darkest, most humiliating hours of her life.
The man who paid for the ticket told his wife and she came, fuming. They went to the police to get it all, finding an attorney and staking a claim for the cash.
Ramoutar said she was arrested by the police, made to strip, locked away for an hour, and was called a terrorist.
The winning ticket in the "Set for Life" game was taken from her by officers of the Four Roads Police Station and given to her friend.
On Saturday, police investigators from the Central Police Station seized the ticket while the million-dollar case was argued.
Ramoutar, 35, gave up yesterday. "I went to a lawyer. I was told it would cost too much to fight. This thing hurt me so deep. It would have changed my life, this money. But, say what? God knows best and I am tired."
Ramoutar, of Paul Street, Arima, returns to work at Starlite Shopping Plaza, Diego Martin, to sweep the corridors.
The man who won the big money has taken leave from work.
He could not be reached. His name and occupation are being withheld.
The mall is where it all began last Friday afternoon.
Ramoutar said the man she considered a friend asked her to buy several $2 "scratch" tickets because she had always brought him luck.
She was given $16. She went to the Lotto outlet at the mall.
She said: "There were no $2 tickets, so I walked out. But just like that, I walked back in and bought this $10 ticket."
Ramoutar said she kept the ticket for two hours as she worked around the mall.
"Then he came looking for me, to ole talk, as he normally does. I said I have the ticket here. We both sat down. We started scratching. I said we winning today and going to share the money. He said yes."
Then it all fell to pieces.
Other mall workers gave advice. The "friend" called his wife. The wife came with their three children, asking for the ticket.
The guard went to the police station across the road. The police came for Ramoutar and she was taken away. She was then taken back to the mall and made to give up the ticket.
She cried.
She said a friend advised her to go to the Central Police Station, "and it was there that the officers said the decision was wrong. We went to the (friend's) home and seized everything". The man got a lawyer. Ramoutar received legal advice. She paid $300.
"He told me the ticket was not bought with my money. And if I fought, I would have to pay $40,000 in legal fees. So I give up. I am hurt because we agreed to share it. At least I should get something."
It has happened before that a lottery prize has turned friends into fiends.
Former National Lotteries Control Board (NLCB) marketing manager Devant Maharaj recalled that in Ste Madeleine, there was a case of a man who gave $5 to a friend to buy a Lotto ticket that won a $1.3 million payout some time ago.
The man who bought the ticket wanted it all.
The case was resolved after a lawsuit was filed giving the men a 50/50 stake. The men are no longer friends.
In Ramoutar's case, Maharaj said the NLCB was obliged by law to pay the money to whomever presented the ticket.
He said only court action could stop this.
