The tiny village of Sobeto, Spain has only 250 people and has been struggling with the ravages of both Spain’s downturned economy and a severe drought. Despair was so high that many residents considered not taking part of Spain’s Christmas lottery – known as El Gordo or The Fat One – despite being a tradition. During trying times it’s easy to understand the frustration at putting the rare amount of coin you do have into something so unlikely as your country’s largest lottery. But they did it anyway and it seemed their time had come. Every household in this close-knit community got to share in the $950 million winnings, the largest pot ever.
Well, all but one. Greek filmmaker Costis Mitsotakis had moved to the village for a love which didn’t work out. He still remained there, living in a barn he was restoring a half-mile from the main village itself. Unfortunately it seemed the homemaker committee had overlooked his household when they made the rounds for tickets. I would classify this as a Major Bummer.
But Mr. Mitsotakis is staying very zen about the entire matter. Apparently he had been trying to sell a piece of land for some time without any success. Since the win he’s been fielding calls from various neighbors interested in buying the land. The rest of the community hopes to put the money back into revitalizing the village and cultivating more land. There seems to be happy endings all around but even so, having a piece of that $950 million sure would’ve been nice.
Read the whole story at The New York Times.
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And nobody in the village pooled a few bucks from each person to give this guy a teensy share? It wasn’t his fault he was overlooked. That sucks!
Comment by mbif — February 3, 2012 @ 3:41 pm
Sounds like my luck. They should count him in for a share. He wasnt ask
Comment by grammac1 — February 3, 2012 @ 4:18 pm
all he has to do is as for 3.8 million dollars for the land he is trying to sell haha!
Comment by alaskanqtpa — February 3, 2012 @ 4:48 pm
*ask
Comment by alaskanqtpa — February 3, 2012 @ 4:48 pm
And you thought you had problems with C2C.
Play nice & have fun.
Comment by stockmancatdoo — February 3, 2012 @ 4:50 pm
That really sucks for him. But i am happy for the town and winners.
Comment by mscheetah-loco — February 3, 2012 @ 4:56 pm
Friday afternoon thoughts to live by. LRG
1. Never slap a man who’s chewing tobacco.
2. Never kick a cow chip on a hot day.
3. There are two theories to arguing with a woman.
Neither one works.
4. Never miss a good chance to shut up.
5. Always drink upstream from the herd.
6. If you find yourself in a hole, stop digging.
7. The quickest way to double your money is to fold it
and put it back into your pocket.
8. There are three kinds of men:
The ones that learn by reading.
The few who learn by observation.
The rest of them have to pee on the electric fence
and find out for themselves.
9. Good judgment comes from experience, and a lot of
that comes from bad judgment.
10. If you’re riding’ ahead of the herd, take a look back
every now and then to make sure it’s still there.
11. Lettin’ the cat outta the bag is a whole lot easier’n
puttin’ it back.
12. After eating an entire bull, a mountain lion felt so
good he started roaring.
He kept it up until a hunter came along and shot him.
The moral: When you’re full of bull, keep your mouth shut.
Comment by mscheetah-loco — February 3, 2012 @ 5:45 pm
Well said msheetah
Comment by spookyjane — February 3, 2012 @ 8:09 pm
Cheetah, Cheeta, Cheeta……my idol.
Comment by pavpeg — February 3, 2012 @ 8:26 pm
well if the ppl won that much money and this man was overlooked then maybe they will see to it he could get something too. no way i could ever think of not helping him or anyone else if i had that kind of money especially if the man was left out,, now had he turned down the opportunity to chip in would be a different story. while we may never know the outcome this man will and the good Lord will,,, money goes just as quickly as it comes for most.
Comment by pjk1969 — February 3, 2012 @ 8:30 pm
I think mega is trying to make a lot of us feel better with this story. It worked mega
And cheetah…..words to live by
Comment by cheri900 — February 3, 2012 @ 8:32 pm
WOW 2…things..! a relationship didnt wk.out..lol 2nd. wasnt ask about buying a ticket..lol….BUMMER…..so sad..:(…!!! well its all up hill from this..Hopefully.
Comment by meistera.gracechamp — February 3, 2012 @ 8:36 pm
OMGosh Cheri, long time no see. You are looking lovely in your new hat. I thought maybe your ship came in and i would never see you again. That would make me very very sad.
Comment by mscheetah-loco — February 3, 2012 @ 10:34 pm
Hiya cheetah, that is an evil smile hehehe. Ya know that guy in the story…..he’s my twin
It would be my luck to win magic 21 and have my machine freeze up and not be able to click on it. Thar goes my ship….sailing off into the sunset hardy har har.
Comment by cheri900 — February 4, 2012 @ 7:20 am
sounds like my luck on c2c, that game irretates me so bad. I get real ceazy refreshing all day long. I haven’t won a thing in months. I guess my day is coming……….. I HOPE.
Comment by luvpelecns — February 4, 2012 @ 1:27 pm
WELL i think somehow they should do something very nice for him then!
Comment by dee121240 — February 4, 2012 @ 9:07 pm
I thought you might of been on that ship that grounded Cheri when i didn’t see you on here for a while. I was ready to shoot a flare up in to the sky. Send the Navy Seals after you. Now you would of loved the Navy Seals finding you for sure. All those good looking guys surrounding you. Of course they would of been wiping drool from they mouths after seeing how beautiful you are. Cheri and Navy Seals = a win for sure.
Comment by mscheetah-loco — February 4, 2012 @ 10:48 pm
Sad story but a good happy ending right there.
Comment by ilovebonkers1990 — February 5, 2012 @ 11:11 am
he hasn’t gone postal about this twist of fate…decent lesson for us. sometimes missing a good (great) turn of fortune isn’t the worst event in ones life. cheetah…too funny
Comment by allisont13 — February 5, 2012 @ 3:36 pm
Omg cheetah.. send em plzzzzzzzzz. But then again, the last person they “rescued” they also buried at sea
The ship that comes for me will have scurvy knaves on it more than likely! Walk that plank!
Comment by cheri900 — February 5, 2012 @ 4:06 pm
I think they should have added him in or at least a smaller percentage – it wasn’t his fault – but all in all….congrats and very happy for all. Wouldn’t happen in my luck though. I play Gamesville – n ot the lottery
Comment by chingchang13 — February 5, 2012 @ 5:40 pm
I been playing the same 5 #’s little lotto since it started. Everyday and never missed a day. I use to get 4 #s a lot. Than the creeps added more #s and now i am lucky to get 3 stinking #s. One of these days. I use to play the daily 3-4 #’s and i quit that. The day i quit buying them my 4 #s came in straight. I almost died. lol
Comment by mscheetah-loco — February 5, 2012 @ 7:45 pm
Ya I agree with the others who said that they should also cut him in seeing as he was overlooked and wasn’t even given the opportunity to chip in. It just dawned on me though that we may be missing something…. perhaps the word Sobeto means Greedy in English? Besides using a ton of choice words that would more then likely get my post deleted, I think I’ll just leave it at that. I had a somewhat similar situation happen years ago but there was only $100 at stake not millions. I had gotten a ride to work with someone and we ended up stopping at a gas station on the way and I decided to chip in for gas since she had given me a ride to work like 3 days that week. She was putting in $20 so I gave her $10. She went in to pay for gas and came out with 2 of the $2 crossword scratch n wins. She gave me one and said if someone wins we’ll split it. We got to work a bit early and still had some time before our shift so we sat with some other co workers and scratched our tickets. Mine lost and she scratched and won $100. I was like sweet $50 and then we went to start our shifts. After work I asked if she cashed in the ticket yet and made some comment about how awesome it was we had won $50 each. She mumbled something about well I bought the tickets so I’m just going to keep the money and walked away. I told everyone about it and they couldnt believe she was doing that. It would’ve been different if she wouldn’t have bought me a ticket at all or wouldn’t have made a point of saying we’d split the winnings. Just goes to show ya how greedy some people are.
Comment by luckylisa74 — February 5, 2012 @ 10:01 pm
Wow so sorry Lisa.
Comment by spookyjane — February 6, 2012 @ 8:52 am
I have gambled for years on everything from horses to dogs. I have found in all my experiences to never promise anything when it comes to gambling. I was with a fellow gambler at a casino and he was short on money. All of a sudden he comes up with this NON original idea of pulling our money together and if we win we would split. I asked him one question. Who is in charge of what we play? He proceeded to say since he is a professional gambler he will do the gambling. I laughed and told him to keep his money and i would do the same. When he started that bull crap that he is a professional gambler i knew right than my answer would be no way. We left that casino with him broke and me up a few dollars. How professional was that? LOL
Comment by mscheetah-loco — February 6, 2012 @ 1:33 pm
Seems to me that if the point was for the entire community to try and win and split the jackpot, then it shouldn’t matter if his residence was missed or not. He’s still a member of the community, and the neighborly thing to do would be to share. Besides, the sliver that each of the other 249 people would have to shave off is less than 100,000 each … with 3.8 million per person, I’m certain they can all afford 100k
Comment by crypticshadow — February 7, 2012 @ 11:00 am
I totally agree with crypticshadow! That’s what I thought in the get go. If he owes a buck or five or ten, just knock on his door and say, hey you owe us ‘so much” and hey, be at such and such a place at this time, and we all collect our winnings. Just seems like the community thing to do.
Comment by thebyrdsfriend — February 7, 2012 @ 12:32 pm
I just wanna win something,,,just like everyone one else. I think Spain has a good thing going. Wouldn’t it be nice if all communitys could do that? We could all have a little piece of the pie….
Comment by onimas21 — February 9, 2012 @ 8:23 am