Imagine as a Bahamian, casually buying a few lottery tickets, as we do, while in Miami shopping, and then flying home, thinking nothing more about it.
Now imagine checking the tickets almost two months later. You’re getting ready to throw them in garbage, kissing your teeth in disappointment, because you never win anything anyway.
But now imagine, while putting another fork full of peas and rice in your mouth, you notice that your lucky numbers were drawn. You have just won $6.7 million dollars in the American lottery, in March, but didn’t realise it until May.
What if you had misplaced your ticket, or the dog ate it, or the ticket accidentally got washed to bits in your trouser pocket. For a Bahamian, the whole house and yard would be searched by police detectives if necessary, the dog might have to be sent to the sausage factory, and if the wife had washed your trousers, then you would have goods grounds for divorce.
Luckily for one Bahamian, he kept his lottery ticket in a safe place.
For Bahamian lawyer, Mr. Jerome Pyfrom, the numbers 40-3-28-7-37-21 drawn on March 16, 1991, took on a whole new, life- changing meaning.
A $6.7 million dollar lottery win translated into 20 annual payments of $112,333.34.
If the first payment was made in 1991, then the final lottery instalment for lucky Mr. Pyfrom would have ended in 2011.
(The Tampa Bay Times, Wednesday May 29, 1991)
