Current laws in Florida, US, do not prevent people convicted of a crime from keeping money won at the lottery

Dec 12, 2014 12:35 GMT  ·  By

Last week, 43-year-old Timothy Poole decided to try his luck at playing the lottery. He bought a ticket, put down his numbers of choice and then patiently waited for the winner to be announced. Sure enough, the lucky guy turned out to be him.

Thus, word has it that the man landed himself an impressive $3 million (€2.4 million) jackpot. According to the Florida Lottery, the 43-year-old's chances to win this prize were about 1 in 1,680,000. Yes, Timothy Poole is one terribly blessed individual.

Except that there is one small problem

Whenever somebody wins the lottery, the normal thing to do is congratulate them. Wriggling in pain and cursing on the inside is perfectly acceptable, just as long as the expected congratulations are delivered right in schedule.

The thing is that, rather than getting one high-five after another once the Florida Lottery announced him to be the winner of the fairly impressive jackpot, 43-year-old Timothy Poole found himself at the center of a heated debate.

Long story short, there are some who say that, seeing how he is a convicted child molester, the man should not be allowed to keep his prize. That's right, you read that correctly. Timothy Pool is not your average guy. He is guilty of child molestation.

By the looks of it, it was back in 2002 that the man admitted to having abused two boys under the age of 12 and was consequently put behind bars. He was released from prison in 2006 and now works as a cab driver for a taxi company owned by his family.

Besides, UT San Diego tells us that, over the years, the 43-year-old man has many times been arrested on charges such as grand theft and check forgery. Still, it appears that, for some reason, the universe is still willing to smile down on him.

He will get to keep the money

Seeing how current laws in Florida, US, do not prevent criminals from keeping money won at the lottery, Timothy Poole will get to keep the jackpot he landed fair and square. It's still unclear what he will do with the prize, but one can only assume that he will soon settle on a career other than a cab driver.

Interestingly enough, word has it that, shortly after 43-year-old Timothy Poole was denounced as a child molester, the photo showing him holding his winning check was pulled from the Florida Lottery's official website. The photo in question is available below.

Commenting on the decision to have this photo removed from the Florida Lottery's website, spokesperson Shelly Gerteisen only said that “We chose to not draw additional attention to this particular winner.”

Child molester wins the lottery, gets to keep the money (5 Images)

Meet 43-year-old Timothy Poole
This guy is now filthy richThe man won the money fair and sqaure, by playing the lottery
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