Image Credit: PeJo / Shutterstock.comOf course, what’s “crazy” is subjective and a matter of personal taste. However, there will always be those purchases that make the average person either pause and wonder what the buyer was thinking or applaud the ingenuity of the purchase. And when money is no object, those purchases can be even more head-scratching curious. See just how crazy things can get when the word budget is no longer part of a buyer’s vocabulary.
5 NASCAR Team
When lifelong NASCAR fan Joe Denette won $75.6 million in the Mega Millions lottery back in 2009, he knew exactly what he wanted to do with his new-found fortune: buy a NASCAR team. Opting for a lump sum payment of $46 million, the Virginia native started Joe Denette Motorsports and immediately created a Camping World Truck Series team. Partnering with Hermie Sadler, a former Nationwide Series regular, Joe Denette Motorsports introduced its first full-time team in the 2011 Camping World Truck Series, and is continuing to make a name for itself one truck and race at a time.
4 Breast Enlargements
It should come as no surprise that cosmetic surgery is a popular choice among lottery winners, with breast implants being a common pick. When 16-year old Callie Rogers won close to $3 million in the UK lottery back in 2003, she purchased breast implants in a massive shopping spree that included four homes, designer clothes and luxury cars. Sarah Cockings, another young UK lottery winner, decided to go the altruistic route and used a portion of her nearly $5 million payout in 2005 to buy each of her two sisters a pair of new breasts.
3 Wrestlicious
When 19-year old Jonathan “Jay” Vargas won $35 million playing the Powerball back in 2008, he wasn’t interested in splurging on cars and houses. He wanted to use the money to combine his two biggest loves: professional wrestling and women. Opting for a lump-sum payout of $17 million, Vargas used a portion of his winnings to create Wrestlicious, a production company based in Tampa Bay, Florida, whose programming features gorgeous, scantily-clad women in wrestling matches, comedy sketches and bikini shoots. According to Vargas, Wrestlicious equals “MAD TV + the WWE + Baywatch + Dave Chappelle.” Wrestilicious went into syndication in 2010 and debuted in Great Britain in 2013 on Loaded TV.
2 New Knees
We often hear of lottery winners splurging on new cars, homes and luxury vacations, but new body parts? Not so much. That’s until the Dodds hit it big in 2007 when they won nearly $4 million in the UK’s rollover jackpot. Tony and Greta Dodd, both in their 60s at the time, suffered from chronic and debilitating knee pain. It was so problematic that the outgoing couple could no longer dance, swim, play golf or walk more than a few yards at a time. Their names eventually landed on the national knee replacement list. So when the big news came that July, the first thing the Dodds did was make an appointment for knee replacement surgery. Now, with two pairs of new knees, the couple has been dancing, golfing and swimming nonstop ever since.
1 Drugs
Winning the lottery is supposed to open the door to new experiences and a new life, not a drug habit. However, that’s exactly what happened to lottery winner Willie Hurt of Lansing, Michigan. Back in 1989, Hurt won approximately $3.1 million in the Michigan lottery, but lost it all to a new crack cocaine habit in just two years. By the end of 1991, not only did Hurt smoke away his fortune, he was also newly divorced, lost custody of his three children and was facing an attempted murder charge. Powerball winner Jack Whittaker didn’t fair much better, either. In 2002, the West Virginian won $315 million in the lottery; however, not too long after, his daughter and granddaughter were dead from drug overdoses.
