A man from the Indian state of Kerala, Anoop, won the lottery jackpot of 250 million rupees (SGD$4.21 million) in September, which was the highest amount ever offered in Kerala for the lottery, according to the BBC.
One week later, Anoop posted a video on Facebook begging people to stop asking him for money and to leave him and his family alone.
He said that things had gotten so bad that he couldn’t even bring his son to see a doctor when he got sick without being followed by strangers asking him for money.
Once the news had broken about his astonishing windfall, Anoop said that people would show up at his house every morning.
The India Times also reported that his phone was also flooded with calls from his family and friends.
He said “all I can say is that I haven’t gotten any money yet. No one seems to understand my problem no matter how many times I say it. I have lost all peace of mind and I can’t even stay in my own home as I am facing people calling to ask me to sort out their needs because I won the first prize.”
Anoop and his family are since living at a relative’s home in order to avoid the public, and he expressed his regret at winning the lottery.
He said that he was initially struggling financially and was working as an autorickshaw driver and that he had to break open his son’s piggy bank to buy a plane ticket to Malaysia to get a job as a chef.