Nice black man wins $30 million lottery who gave $ to 'Big Man', now feared dead
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American matt
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LAKELAND, Fla. (AP) — In 2006, Abraham Shakespeare — a truck driver's assistant who lived with his mother — won $30 million in the Florida lottery. His good fortune may have cost him his life.
Shakespeare vanished months ago. His mother hopes he is somewhere in the Caribbean, lying on a beach and enjoying the good life away from all the hangers-on who were constantly hitting him up for money.
The sheriff has a more ominous theory: Shakespeare was killed.
"There are a lot of odd and bizarre circumstances in this case," Sheriff Grady Judd said. "We fear and are preparing for the worst. We're working this case as if it were a homicide."
Shakespeare, 43, won the big jackpot after buying a lottery ticket at a convenience store in a town called Frostproof, claiming later that he gave the last $3 in his pocket to a homeless man just before the winning numbers were announced.
Shakespeare — who had a criminal record that included arrests and prison time for burglary, battery and not paying child support — took a lump-sum payment of $16.9 million instead of annual installments.
He bought a Nissan Altima, a Rolex from a ? shop, a $1 million home in a gated community. He talked about starting a foundation for the poor and insisted the money wouldn't change him.
"I'm not a material person," he said in 2007. "I don't let material things run me. I'm on a tight budget."
The money quickly caused him problems.
A former co-worker sued him in 2007, accusing Shakespeare of stealing the winning ticket from him. Six months later, a jury ruled the ticket was Shakespeare's.
Then there were the people constantly asking him for a piece of his fortune.
"They didn't wait. They just came right after they found out he won this money," his mother, Elizabeth Walker, said recently.
She said her son was generous, paying for funerals, lending money to friends starting businesses and even giving a million dollars to a guy known only as "Big Man."
Not long after he bought the million-dollar home in early 2007, he was approached by a woman named Dee Dee Moore, said family and officials.
Moore — who could not be reached by The Associated Press — said she was interested in writing a book about Shakespeare's life. She became something of a financial adviser to Shakespeare, who never graduated high school.
Property records show that Moore's company, American Medical Professionals, bought Shakespeare's home for $655,000 last January. His mother said the last time she saw him was shortly afterward, around her birthday in February.
The sheriff said the last time anyone saw Shakespeare was in April — but it wasn't until Nov. 9 that he was reported missing, by a police informant.
And the story gets more bizarre.
According to The Ledger of Lakeland, the 37-year-old Moore contacted reporters at the newspaper in April, saying Shakespeare was "laying low" because people tried to suck money out of him.
That made sense to Shakespeare's mother — sort of. "I remember once, talking with me over the phone, he said he might go to Jamaica," she said.
On Dec. 5, a sobbing Moore told The Ledger that she helped Shakespeare disappear, but now wants him to return because detectives were searching her home and car and looking for blood on her belongings.
One reason he wanted to leave, she said, was a child support case for a child he allegedly fathered after winning the lottery. "Abraham sold me his mess to get a better life," she told the paper.
She even gave the paper a video that she said she took of Abraham. In the video, he says he is tired of people asking him for money. "They don't take no for an answer," he says.
"So where you wanna go to?" Moore asks in the video.
"It don't matter to me. I'm not a picky person," Shakespeare replies.
Moore told the paper that she took the video to "protect herself."
Moore said she filed paperwork to take over five mortgages totaling about $370,000 that had been owed to Shakespeare. She said she sold the loans at a loss to another person. She added that many of the people who borrowed from Shakespeare have refused to pay, and she feels threatened by some of them.
Moore's past includes a year of probation after she was charged with falsely reporting that she was carjacked and ? in 2001. Officials said she concocted the scheme so her insurance company would reimburse her for the SUV, which she claimed had been stolen.
The woman did not answer several calls placed to a number listed for her in public records. During a recent visit to the home she bought from Shakespeare, a security box rang to a phone number that had been disconnected.
Sheriff's officials won't comment on Moore's involvement in Shakespeare's life.
The sheriff said that Shakespeare spent the bulk of his lottery winnings. The fact that he didn't call his mother on Christmas reinforces the theory that Shakespeare is not just hiding, Judd said.
"I hope so much that he is alive somewhere," said his mother. "And I want people to know, if they ever win the lottery, I hope they know how to handle the people that come after them. They can be dangerous."
Comments
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when i get on....? everybody else, except moms
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pretty much,............. i ain't lettin no body know i won that ?
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excuse me...
BUT WHAT THE ? IS A TRUCK DRIVERS ASSISTANT????????????????? -
That ? from the 3 6 mafia stay fly video Is dead
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for some reason it sound like that book writer ? set him up.
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American Loo VII 3D wrote: »excuse me...
BUT WHAT THE ? IS A TRUCK DRIVERS ASSISTANT?????????????????
navigator? -
cosign on the dope name and the mystery that is a 'drivers assistant' ( damn i just laughed out lout at the office typing that and had to play it off as a ? up cough)
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i'm bout to google that ?
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freelance human GPS system
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them ? win
truck drivers assistant -
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yeah they killed dude, no doubt
he wouldn't have been able to hide the fact he won anyways, that stuff is public knowledge -
blakfyahking wrote: »yeah they killed dude, no doubt
he wouldn't have been able to hide the fact he won anyways, that stuff is "public knowledge"
thatz the dumbest thing about the lottery....for real -
i thought u could stay anonymous?
either way, i'm relocating... give a couple mill to my moms, wifey's moms.. tell them to deal with the fam, while we move to canada or something -
yeah, she killed that ? .
if i ever got rich, i think my baby moms' mother would try to do some ? like this. she's money hungry to the point its scary.
at one point she had like 3 insurance poliicies on her daughter. and she stay with some get rich scheme -
I'm pretty sure Big Man went thru his milly quick and wanted more and Abraham told him no and tried to flee. Big Man definately had a hand in this.
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American matt wrote: »I'm pretty sure Big Man went thru his milly quick and wanted more and Abraham told him no and tried to flee. Big Man definately had a hand in this.
never trust a man named big man. -
mo money more problems..... the ? u have to deal with being a poo ? who gets money he shoulda moved to away to teh burbs in another state
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I know Shakspere. Good dude way down on his luck, once he got that money all the little hoodrats was throwing it at him and yelling buy me this buy me that. He use to ? food from our resturant back in the day.
This man stood there and told me and the hubby he wish he never won the money cause people and they ? was starting to wear him down and ? him off. I hope dude really did run away and enjoy the rest of his life. -
hummingbird wrote: »I know Shakspere. Good dude way down on his luck, once he got that money all the little hoodrats was throwing it at him and yelling buy me this buy me that. He use to ? food from our resturant back in the day.
This man stood there and told me and the hubby he wish he never won the money cause people and they ? was starting to wear him down and ? him off. I hope dude really did run away and enjoy the rest of his life.
damn son. thats sad -
Did you also know Big Man?
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Yes I know who big man is. Thats this guys nickname, the story tried to make it seem like he's some notorious person and he's not. It was a friend helping a friend.
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Is Big Man hangin out at gamblin spots, tied to an intricate plot with folks who want Abe stuck like flypaper
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thats why you dont tell people ? you got,even if they do know,i wouldnt want new friends and family around me anyway.Brawds out here know you got money,they all on yo dik