Aunt Bought Nephew's Winning Lottery Ticket & Now Demands He Share the Prize with Her
A woman who gifted a winning lottery ticket to her nephew sparked a debate online after demanding he shares a large portion of the prize money with her.
The year had been a rough ride for Redditor accountforaita33. However, a lottery ticket could've changed her fortune had she owned it instead of giving it away to her nephew.
She posted to Reddit, explaining her struggles and why she needed her nephew's lottery win more than him. However, she came under fire after the online community didn't sympathize with her.
At the time, the Original Poster (OP) was fired from her job and didn't have any unemployment options. She started her post by narrating her financial struggle. She explained:
"I do own my house and managed to scrape by to pay my property taxes and insurance with odd jobs, but I am eating ramen just about every meal."
OP was concerned about not getting anything for her nephew's birthday. She wanted to afford at least a meager gift and scraped through enough money for it.
She bought him a few lottery scratchers on his birthday around a year ago. To her surprise, the boy won two of those lotteries. OP said:
"One was for about $50, which was cool enough, but the second one was actually into the middle 5 figures."
She didn't detail the exact figure as the lottery winners in OP's state are on public record. She thought she had the right to share the prize money and reached out to her sister.
OP's sister and her husband were well off. Her nephew enjoyed a fully-funded college and got whatever he wanted. OP decided to make a candid request as she needed this money to improvise her lifestyle.
People condemned the woman saying it was unfair of her to demand a share from her nephew's lottery win.
She reached out to her sister and proposed a deal that she thought was generous. OP told her sister it would be nice if her nephew shared three-quarters of the prize money with her. Her sister asked her if she was kidding and hung up on her.
OP later texted her nephew, but he probably blocked her after reading her message. She was confused about demanding a fair share from his lottery prize.
Commenting on her post, which she shared around a year ago, many users didn't find themselves sympathizing with the woman.
For instance, user fdar explained to OP how gifting works in a comment that read:
"Here's a gift; it's probably worthless, but if by some miracle it turns out to be worth something, I want it back. It's only for you if it's actually worthless," Great gift, OP. And not how gifts work, you only get to add that kind of conditions in advance."
As Redditor TifaYuhara puts it, a gift once given belongs to the recipient, and they can even sell it for its true worth. Meanwhile, user Specialfrancine didn't take OP's gesture lightly and wrote:
"[Expletive] it was a gift. You don't get to ask for part of someone's gift. It [expletive] you're having it tough but still doesn't mean you're "generous" for asking for only part of the gift."
People condemned the woman saying it was unfair of her to demand a share from her nephew's lottery win. However, there are instances where people have shared their lottery prize with its owner. For example, North Carolina native Vielka Roman bought her sister a lottery for Mother's Day, unaware it was a $1.3 million jackpot winner.
When Vielka Roman bought her sister Neris a lottery ticket, she hardly knew about the bumper win. Her fiancé Al checked the numbers online as they hurried uphill for a vacation. He saw the confetti burst on the app and rechecked the numbers to ensure they were real.
Vielka called her sister so that they could claim the prize together. Speaking to Metro, Neris said that everyone should have a sister like hers who puts her loved ones before herself.
If you liked this story, please share it with your friends to inspire them too! You'd also like to read this one about how a poor older woman discovered her late husband's $1 million lottery win.