Some guys truly do have all the luck; this is the case for a man named Hugh Allen Hawkins. Hawkins filed for bankruptcy last summer; he and his wife had $250 left in bank, and $87,000 in credit card debt. They really needed a miracle or they would have been out on the street. On Tuesday, all Hawkins problems seemed so far away, when luck hit him between the eyes.
On Tuesday an Iowa Lottery official handed him a check for $113.2 million. This was in fact the largest prize ever won in the state. Apparently seeking a miracle, Hawkins bought a ticket and won the Dec. 14th Powerball Jackpot. Despite not having any money, he took what he had after that win, and asked advice from financial and legal sources. Tuesday all that went away when he came forward to claim the prize.
Hawkins, a real estate developer, took their advice to claim the prize after the first of the year. It was because of that he was able to collect the $54.8 million, thus postponing the $16.4 million tax bill until December 2006. While he expects friends and family to hit him up for money now, they can try to catch him at his residence, but he doesn’t live there anymore since claiming bankruptcy. Now the family is living elsewhere. |
