Woman who won $343.9m on lottery given less than half of that after being forced to make one decision
A woman who won a jaw dropping prize of $343.9 million (£270.2 million) in her local lottery walked away with just half of her winnings.
Lerynne West, from Dexter, Iowa, was one of two lucky winners of the Powerball jackpot draw back in 2018 which totalled $700 million.
However one thing they don't tell you about winning the lottery is that you often don't get to take home all of the money, with winners in the US expected to hand over 24 percent of their cash to federal income tax.
This was the exact dilemma Lerynne faced, with the mum-of-three given two options on how she could receive the money.
Advert
The first choice was to take an annuity worth $343.9 million, which would be paid in 30 graduated payments over 29 years, allowing for a federal withholding of 24 percent and a state withholding of five percent.
The second was to take a lump sum payment of $198.1 million (£159.1 million) before taxes, totalling at $140.6 million (£112.9 million).
Faced with a tough decision, Lerynne decided to go with the lump sum.
At this point, it's important to remind ourselves that $130.6 million is still absolutely crazy money, and Lerynne and her family are pretty much guaranteed to be sorted for life either way. But still, what could have been!
The story of how Lerynne found out she had won the lottery was pretty unusual, and the grandmother ended up going viral shortly after her win.
Lerynne revealed that she had bought the lottery ticket on a whim the day before the draw, after a friend had driven her to a local gas station for a quick bite to eat.
The following day, she had almost forgotten about her ticket when that same friend called her to let her know that someone from Iowa had won the lottery.
Recounting the day of the draw during an interview with Ellen DeGeneres, Lerynne shared: "I went to check my tickets and I didn't have any tickets!"
It turned out she had left them in her friend's truck.
"I said, 'Go out and check them for me. The Power Ball is four'. She said, 'Oh my God, Lerynne, the Power Ball is four!'"
Lerynne's friend then sent her a photo of the ticket so she could check it out for herself.
"I went to IALottery.com and I entered the date, the numbers, and when you get a number right, it comes up in red.
"Nothing was in red and, in fact, I had entered the wrong date.
"So I fixed the date, and all the numbers came up in red. And it said, 'Jackpot'. And I thought I'd done something wrong again!"
But, it turned out Lerynne really did win the jackpot.
"I said, 'You get in that truck and you get that ticket here now and drive slow.' I didn't want any accidents!"
As well as spending the winnings on her family, Lerynne decided to set up a charity called the Callum Foundation in honour of her grandson.
"When I won the lottery I thought I had a responsibility to do good for other people and to help other people out as well," she explained.
"The Callum Foundation is named after my grandson who was born at 24 weeks and lived one day."
The Callum Foundation offers grants to individuals and organisations in order to aid issues including 'poverty and hunger, education, animal welfare, and veteran affairs.'
Ali Condon