In 1999, the Tonda Lynn Dickerson she was a waitress at a Waffle House located in Alabama and more specifically in Grand Bay. During one of her shifts, a customer decided to leave a tip for her and her colleagues from a lottery ahead of the big draw that would take place that day.
There were five waiters. The three of them they looked at the lottery numbers on the day of the draw. None of them had won. Two others, including Tonda, would check if they won the next day. That was also the moment when Tonda realized how he had won the lottery an amount that by today’s standards was close to 20 million dollars.
Everyone in the restaurant started celebrating wildly mainly because, according to the other waiters, they had agreed that if one of the five won the lottery, they would all share the winnings. Tonda in turn refused to share her earnings with her colleagues claiming that no such agreement had ever been made.
The courts and the kidnapping by her ex-husband
Instead he decided to take the amount gradually in 375 thousand dollars for each year over a period of 30 years. Apparently, of course, she decided to quit her job that very day. Her old colleagues were furious with her and decided to take legal action against her.
The court decided, of course, that there was no official document proving that there was such an agreement between the employees. This means that Tonda managed to keep its profits intact. But her suffering did not end there.
Suddenly the man who had given the tip appeared pointing out that Waffle House employees had promised to buy him a car if they won. His allegations were dismissed immediately and there was no need for a court hearing. Her torment does not end here either.
A few days later, Tonda’s ex-husband, Stacy Martin, he tried to kidnap her holding a gun. It is rumored that Tonda managed to escape, take his gun and shoot him. However, it appears that there were no specific charges for this particular incident.
The final blow of the tax office
But the final blow came for Tonda from the tax office which began dealing with her case after the very large publicity it received. So it seems that Tonda tried to build a small company. The authorities scrutinized her documents and found that she had not paid the amount of tax due to her.
So in 2012, 13 years after she won the lottery, a court ruled that Tonda will have to pay an amount in the order of 1.1 million dollars. Given that she had decided not to take the entire capital together, the specific fine was unbearable for her.
We know very little today about Tonda’s fate. However, it seems that managed to pay off her debt but she didn’t manage to live a life of a millionaire, as her social media shows that she still has to work. This time at a casino in Biloxi.
See also:
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