Ramsey
lives at the Loving Care assisted living facility in St. Petersburg, under the
guardianship of the non-profit organization, Aging Solutions. He is free to
come and go as he pleases and often bought Florida lottery scratch cards from
his local Quick Pick gas station. When one of his Quick Picks turned into quick
cash though, he was unsure what to do about the win. He hid the ticket away for
several weeks before eventually confiding in taxi driver, Charlie Springer, who
then helped him to pull together the documentation required to claim
the prize.
Aging
Solutions usually take care of Ramsey's financial needs, including paying his
bills, but they were kept in the dark about the $403,288 (before taxes) lottery
win, and in just four weeks half the money was gone. Suspicions arose when they
noticed Ramsey was suddenly getting a lot of visits from family members who had
never bothered with him in the past.
"It
was people who were around that had never been around before," said Lona
DiCerb (director of operations at Aging Solutions) "That's troublesome
when family he'd never spoke of prior began coming around."
DiCerb and
the judge handling Ramsey's case are now criticizing the Florida Lottery for
failing to do a more thorough background check on their winners.
