Jackpot winner tries to lay low

Jul 12, 2004, 9:36 am (10 comments)

Mega Millions

A day after bagging a $294 million lottery jackpot, Geraldine Williams battled to get her bearings yesterday as she went from housemaid to multimillionaire retiree overnight.
 
Williams' ex-hubby said the 67-year-old grandmother and her children are worn out by the whirlwind of public interest whipped up in the hours after Williams stepped forward to claim her prize.
 
"They're trying to cope with something that's unimaginable," said James Williams, who split from his now-millionaire ex-wife in 1979. "(Geraldine) doesn't want to be around anybody right now."
 
After keeping silent during a week of speculation, Williams and several relatives drove to Lottery headquarters Friday in a fleet of white limos to accept a $294 million check.
 
After taxes, Williams, a former janitor at the University of Massachusetts at Lowell, will take home $117 million.
 
Neighbors said they have seen carloads full of strangers swirling around Williams' home. One group stopped and yelled, "Honey, I'm home," in the hours after Williams was identified as the Lottery winner, one neighbor said.
 
James Williams said his children, who have kept in close contact with Geraldine, are worried the jackpot will bring new dangers for their family.
 
"They're nervous because they have little ones," said Williams, who has eight grandchildren. "They just want to live a normal life. It's hard."

Boston Herald

Comments

tg636

Now would be the time to get out of Lowell for a month or 2 and take that trip around the world.  Even if I was going to stay in Massachusetts (I live in Lynn, MA, a city a lot like Lowell about 30 minutes away), I would buy a secret, secluded cottage in my favorite area or have a good rental agent on call whenever I wanted to get away.  

Mana's avatarMana

::Sighs:: Heh.. I'm an attention whore (can I say that in Lottery Post? xD) as you can tell from appearances I talk about myself of...

... for my situation, I *know* someone's going to dventually blab something and I'll be spotted... so I might as well get my 15 mintues worth and drag with extra money in the process. 

By then, I've already put most of my money in some munis that won't go anywhere and the interest and designated "leftover" for whatever crazy scheming I'll be doin'...

RJOh's avatarRJOh

"Neighbors said they have seen carloads full of strangers swirling around Williams' home. One group stopped and yelled, "Honey, I'm home," in the hours after Williams was identified as the Lottery winner, one neighbor said."







Sounds like it would have been a good idea to have moved to one of those 'gated' community before picking up her winning or picked it up on her way to a new and unknown address.

RJOh

tg636

This is the type of enormous jackpot that would have been best picked up under an anonymous trust, with no lottery publicity photo on the web site and front page of the Globe and Herald. I know the theory is that you feed the media machine 1 day of publicity and then you'll be left more or less alone, and maybe that works for the media, but I doubt it works for nut jobs and begging psychos who have "$294 million" on the brain.  The theory might also be that people will find out dventually even if you do have a trust...but dventually is not today, tomorrow or next week, and even if word gets out at some point, it would give you valuable time to plan your next move and get used to the money. 

golotto

I agree and continue to ask why all states that participate in the multi-state games don't offer an anonymity option?

markp1950
Because they want to prove that the sum was actually paid... (Elvis is living in Kansas) :-)



Besides, Mark show up to work for 33 years straight, and suddenly after the Lottery is won in his hometown he disappears and no more work... Guess what happened? Daaaaa....



A super Million $$$$ winner will never really be able to hide, and who want to spend their life hiding?



In some ways I'd rather win $10 million than $100 million...



MarkP

Quote: Originally posted by golotto on July 12, 2004

I agree and continue to ask why all states that participate in the multi-state games don't offer an anonymity option?






dphillips's avatardphillips

If she asked me for advice, I would tell her to flee the city, now, telling no one.  The audacity of some people: circling her home and yelling like fools!

What else are they going to do next?  If something happens to her, the lottery headquarters/officials should take full responsibility, shouldn't they?

dphillips (Blue)

MetroPlex's avatarMetroPlex

This is why you hire security. This is why you move and get unlisted numbers before you claim a prize. This is way you take more than a week off before you claim your prize.



Anyone who plays these big jackpots should do research on what to do and not do before and after you win the lottery...she probabley just listen to her family members and not consulted any professionals. What a shame.

MP

tg636

I think you can hide pretty successfully - your coworkers would know you quit your job and friends and perhaps a few trusted others would know, but if you can keep your name and picture out of the papers with no "official" evidence to tie you to the XYZ Trust, that's good enough. The first few months are critical - after a while the lottery beggars will move on to more recent winners. Does anyone know any cases where a lottery trust was found out? I don't know of it happening, though I suppose it has. If you are quiet and refrain from lavish displays of wealth in your original residence, who would know?

But if you really want to keep it quiet, I think you do have to move, and the further away the better. There's a lot of very wealthy and secretive people in the US. If I won and moved to Maui or Los Angeles and didn't tell anyone where my money came from or how much I had, would someone investigate me and then tell all? I would guess not. 

>A super Million $$$$ winner will never really be able to hide, and who want to spend their life hiding?

MetroPlex's avatarMetroPlex
Quote: Originally posted by tg636 on July 13, 2004



>A super Million $$$$ winner will never really be able to hide, and who want to spend their life hiding?






You don't have to hide, just let people know you mean business. Hire security, don't tell anyone until you have atleast changed your numbers and address. It would be smart to live out of a hotel until you got your ducks in a row. Some people win like this and have no idea what to do and it is a shame.



MP
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